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TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS 
BY THOMAS NELSON PAGE 


Tommy Trot’s Visit to Santa Claus 
Santa Claus’s Partner 
A Captured Santa Claus 
Among the Camps 
Two Little Confederates 


The Page Story Book 

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 






“I’M in command,” said the 

AT HIM OVER THE 


GENTLEMAN, 

TOWEL. 


SMILING 






TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


BY 

THOMAS NELSON PAGE 


ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 

1923 


“fiZi 

TPiAS 

Tw) 


i o 


Copyright, 1888 , by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 


Copyright, 1916 , by 
THOMAS NELSON PAGE 


Printed in the United States of America 



t 



« t « 
« 




TO MY MOTHER 












LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


“I'm in command," said the gentleman, smiling at him over 

the towel. Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The old man walked up to the door, and standing on one side, 

flung it open.29 

“Gentlemen, marsters, don’t teck my horses, ef you please," 

said Uncle Balia.69 

Frank and Willy capture a member of the conscript-guard . 95 

The boy faced his captor, who held a strap in one hand . . 129 

“Look! Look! They are running. They are beating our men!" 


exclaimed the boys.143 

The boys sell their cakes to the Yankees.159 


Some of the servants came back to their old home . . . . 167 










TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES. 


CHAPTER I. 

T HE “Two Little Confederates” lived at Oakland. 

It was not a handsome place, as modern ideas 
go,, but down in Old Virginia, where the stand¬ 
ard was different from the later one, it passed in old times 
as one of the best plantations in all that region. The 
boys thought it the greatest place in the world, of course 
excepting Richmond, where they had been one year to the 
fair, and had seen a man pull fire out of his mouth, and 
do other wonderful things. It was quite secluded. It 
lay, it is true, right between two of the county roads, the 
Court-house Road being on one side, and on the other the 
great “Mountain Road,” down which the large covered 
wagons with six horses and jingling bells used to go; but 
the lodge lay this side of the one, and “the big woods,” 
where the boys shot squirrels, and hunted ’possums and 
coons,, and which reached to the edge of “Holetown,” 
stretched between the house and the other, so that the 
big gate-post where the semi-weekly mail was left by the 


2 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

mail-rider each Tuesday and Friday afternoon was a long 
walk, even by the near cut through the woods. The rail¬ 
road was ten miles away by the road. There was a nearer 
way, only about half the distance, by which the negroes 
used to walk and which during the war, after all the horses 
were gone, the boys, too, learned to travel; but before 
that, the road by Trinity Church and Honeyman’s Bridge 
was the only route, and the other was simply a dim bridle¬ 
path, and the “horseshoe-ford” was known to the initiated 
alone. 

The mansion itself was known on the plantation as 
“the great-house,” to distinguish it from all the other 
houses on the place, of which there were many. It had as 
many wings as the angels in the vision of Ezekiel. 

These additions had been made, some in one genera¬ 
tion, some in another, as the size of the family required; 
and finally, when there was no side of the original struc¬ 
ture to which another wing could be joined, a separate 
building had been erected on the edge of the yard which 
was called “The Office,” and was used as such, as well as 
for a lodging-place by the young men of the family. The 
privilege of sleeping in the Office was highly esteemed, 
for, like the toga virilis, it marked the entrance upon man- 
hood of the youths who were fortunate enough to enjoy 
it. There smoking was admissible,, there the guns were 
kept in the corner, and there the dogs were allowed to 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


3 

sleep at the feet of their young masters, or in bed with 
them, if they preferred it. 

In one of the rooms in this building the boys went to 
school whilst small, and another they looked forward to 
having as their own when they should be old enough to 
be elevated to the coveted dignity of sleeping in the Of¬ 
fice. Hugh already slept there, and gave himself airs in 
proportion; but Hugh they regarded as a very aged per¬ 
son; not as old, it was true, as their cousins who came 
down from college at Christmas, and who, at the first 
outbreak of war, all rushed into the army; but each of 
these was in the boys’ eyes a Methuselah. Hugh had his 
own horse and the double-barrelled gun, and when a fel¬ 
low got those there was little material difference between 
him and other men,, even if he did have to go to the 
academy,—which was really something like going to 
school. 

The boys were Frank and Willy; Frank being the eld¬ 
est. They went by several names on the place. Their 
mother called them her “little men,” with much pride; 
Uncle Balia spoke of them as “them chillern,” which gen¬ 
erally implied something of reproach; and Lucy Ann, 
who had been taken into the house to “run after” them 
when they were little boys, always coupled their names 
as “Frank ’n’ Willy.” Peter and Cole did the same when 
their mistress was not by. 


4 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


When there first began to be talk at Oakland about 
the war, the boys thought it would be a dreadful thing; 
their principal ideas about war being formed from an in¬ 
timate acquaintance with the Bible and its accounts of 
the wars of the Children of Israel, in which men, women 
and children were invariably put to the sword. This gave 
a vivid conception of its horrors. 

One evening, in the midst of a discussion about the 
approaching crisis, Willy astonished the company, who 
were discussing the merits of probable leaders of the 
Union armies,, by suddenly announcing that he'd “bet they 
didn't have any general who could beat Joab." 

Up to the time of the war, the boys had led a very un¬ 
eventful, but a very pleasant life. They used to go hunt¬ 
ing with Hugh, their older brother, when he would let 
them go, and after the cows with Peter and Cole. Old 
Balia, the driver, was their boon comrade and adviser, 
and taught them to make whips, and traps for hares and 
birds, as he had taught them to ride and to cobble shoes. 

He lived alone (for his wife had been set free years 
before, and lived in Philadelphia). His room over “the 
old kitchen" was the boys' play-room when he would per¬ 
mit them to come in. There were so many odds and 
ends in it that it was a delightful place. 

Then the boys played blindman's-buff in the house,, 
or hide-and-seek about the yard or garden, or upstairs 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


5 


in their den, a narrow alcove at the top of the house. 

The little willow-shadowed creek, that ran through 
the meadow behind the barn, was one of their haunts. 
They fished in it for minnows and little perch; they made 
dams and bathed in it; and sometimes they played pirates 
upon its waters. 

Once they made an extended search up and down its 
banks for any fragments of Pharaoh's chariots which 
might have been washed up so high; but that was when 
they were younger and did not have much sense. 


CHAPTER II. 


T HERE was great excitement at Oakland during 
the John Brown raid, and the boys' grandmother 
used to pray for him and Cook, whose pictures 
were in the papers. 

The boys became soldiers, and drilled punctiliously 
with guns which they got Uncle Balia to make for them. 
Frank was the captain, Willy the first lieutenant, and a 
dozen or more little negroes composed the rank and file, 
Peter and Cole being trusted file-closers. 

i 

A little later they found their sympathies all on the 
side of peace and the preservation of the Union. Their 
uncle was for keeping the Union unbroken, and ran for 
the Convention against Colonel Richards,, who was the 
chief officer of the militia in the county, and was as blood¬ 
thirsty as Tamerlane, who reared the pyramid of skulls, 
and as hungry for military renown as the great Napoleon, 
about whom the boys had read. 

There was immense excitement in the county over the 
election. Though the boys' mother had made them add 
to their prayers a petition that their Uncle William might 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


7 


win, and that he might secure the blessings of peace; and, 
though at family prayers, night and morning, the same 
petition was presented, the boys' uncle was beaten at the 
polls by a large majority. And then they knew there was 
bound to be war, and that it must be very wicked. They 
almost felt the “invader's heel," and the invaders were 
invariably spoken of as “cruel,," and the heel was described 
as of “iron," and was always mentioned as engaged in 
the act of crushing. They would have been terribly 
alarmed at this cruel invasion had they not been reassured 
by the general belief of the community that one South¬ 
erner could whip ten Yankees, and that, collectively, the 
South could drive back the North with pop-guns. When 
the war actually broke out, the boys were the most en¬ 
thusiastic of rebels, and the troops in Camp Lee did not 
drill more continuously nor industriously. 

Their father, who had been a Whig and opposed se¬ 
cession until the very last, on Virginia's seceding, finally 
cast his lot with his people, and joined an infantry com¬ 
pany; and Uncle William raised and equipped an artillery 
company, of which he was chosen captain; but the in¬ 
fantry was too tame and the artillery too ponderous to 
suit the boys. 

They were taken to see the drill of the county troop of 
cavalry, with its prancing horses and clanging sabres. It 
was commanded by a cousin; and from that moment they 


8 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


were cavalrymen to the core. They flung away their 
stick-guns in disgust; and Uncle Balia spent two grum¬ 
bling days fashioning them a stableful of horses with real 
heads and “sure ’nough” leather bridles. 

Once, indeed, a secret attempt was made to utilize the 
horses and mules which were running in the back pas¬ 
ture; but a premature discovery of the matter ended in 
such disaster to all concerned that the plan was abandoned, 
and the boys had to content themselves with their wooden 
steeds. 

The day that the final orders came for their father and 
uncle to go to Richmond,—from which point they were 
ordered to “the Peninsula/’—the boys could not under¬ 
stand why every one was suddenly plunged into such dis¬ 
tress. Then, next morning, when the soldiers left, the 
boys could not altogether comprehend it. They thought 
it was a very fine thing to be allowed to ride Frank and 
Hun, the two war-horses, with their new, deep army sad¬ 
dles and long bits. They cried when their father and 
uncle said good-bye, and went away; but it was because 
their mother looked so pale and ill, and not because they 
, did not think it was all grand. They had no doubt that 
all would come back soon, for old Uncle Billy, the “head¬ 
man/’ who had been born down in “Little York/’ where 
Cornwallis surrendered, had expressed the sentiment of 
the whole plantation when he declared, as he sat in the 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 9 

back yard surrounded by an admiring throng, and sur¬ 
veyed with pride the two glittering sabres which he had 
allowed no one but himself to polish, that “Ef them Brit¬ 
ishers jest sees dese swodes dee'll run!” The boys tried 
to explain to him that these were not British, but Yan¬ 
kees,—but he was hard to convince. Even Lucy Ann, 
who was incurably afraid of everything like a gun or 
fire-arm, partook of the general fervor, and boasted ef¬ 
fusively that she had actually “tetched Marse John’s big 
pistils.” 

Hugh, who was fifteen, and was permitted to accom¬ 
pany his father to Richmond, was regarded by the boys 
with a feeling of mingled envy and veneration, which he 
accepted with dignified complacency. 

Frank and Willy soon found that war brought some 
immunities. The house filled up so with the families 
of cousins and friends who were refugees that the boys 
were obliged to sleep in the Office, and thus they felt that, 
at a bound,, they were almost as old as Hugh. 

There were the cousins from Gloucester, from the 
Valley, and families of relatives from Baltimore and New 
York, who had come south on the declaration of war. 
Their favorite was their Cousin Belle, whose beauty at 
once captivated both boys. This was the first time that 
the boys knew anything of girls, except their own sister, 
Evelyn; and after a brief period, during which the nov- 


10 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


elty gave them pleasure, the inability of the girls to hunt, 
climb trees, or play knucks, etc.,, and the additional re¬ 
straint which their presence imposed, caused them to hold 
the opinion that “girls were no good. ,, 


CHAPTER III. 


P"N course of time they saw a great deal of “the army,” 

—which meant the Confederates. The idea that the 

* 

Yankees could ever get to Oakland never entered 
any one's head. It was understood that the army lay 
between Oakland and them, and surely they could never 
get by the innumerable soldiers who were always passing 
up one road or the other, and who, day after day and 
night after night, were coming to be fed, and were rap¬ 
idly eating up everything that had been left on the place. 
By the end of the first year they had been coming so 
long that they made scarcely any difference; but the first 
time a regiment camped in the neighborhood it created 
great excitement. 

It became known one night that a cavalry regiment, 
in which were several of their cousins, was encamped at 
Honeyman’s Bridge,, and the boys’ mother determined to 
send a supply of provisions for the camp next morning; 
so several sheep were killed, the smoke-house was opened, 
and all night long the great fires in the kitchen and wash¬ 
house glowed; and even then there was not room, so that 
a big fire was kindled in the back yard, beside which sad- 



12 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


dies of mutton were roasted in the tin kitchens. Every¬ 
body was “rushing.” 

The boys were told that they might go to see the sol¬ 
diers, and as they had to get off long before daylight, 
they went to bed early, and left all “the other boys”— 
that is, Peter and Cole and other colored children— 
squatting about the fires and trying to help the cooks to 
pile on wood. 

It was hard to leave the exciting scene. 

They were very sleepy the next morning; indeed, they 
seemed scarcely to have fallen asleep when Lucy Ann 
shook them; but they jumped up without the usual appli¬ 
cation of cold water in their faces, which Lucy Ann so 
delighted to make; and in a little while they were out in 
the yard, where Balia was standing holding three horses, 
—their mother’s riding-horse; another with a side-saddle 
for their Cousin Belle, whose brother was in the regi¬ 
ment; and one for himself,—and Peter and Cole were 
holding the carriage-horses for the boys, and several other 
men were holding mules. 

Great hampers covered with white napkins were on 
the porch, and the savory smell decided the boys not to 
eat their breakfast, but to wait and take their share with 
the soldiers. 

The roads were so bad that the carriage could not go; 
and as the boys’ mother wished to get the provisions to 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 13 

the soldiers before they broke camp, they had to set out 
at once. In a few minutes they were all in the saddle, 
the boys and their mother and Cousin Belle in front, and 
Balia and the other servants following close behind, each 
holding before him a hamper, which looked queer and 
shadowy as they rode on in the darkness. 

The sky, which was filled with stars when they set 
out, grew white as they splashed along mile after mile 
through the mud. Then the road became clearer; they 
could see into the woods, and the sky changed to a rich 
pink, like the color of peach-blossoms. Their horses were 
covered with mud up to the saddle-skirts. They turned 
into a lane only half a mile from the bridge, and, sud¬ 
denly, a bugle rang out down in the wooded bottom be¬ 
low them, and the boys hardly could be kept from putting 
their horses to a run, so fearful were they that the sol¬ 
diers were leaving, and that they should not see them. 
Their mother, however, told them that this was probably 
the reveille, or “rising-bell,” of the soldiers. She rode on 
at a good sharp canter, and the boys were diverting them¬ 
selves over a discussion as to who would act the part of 
Lucy Ann in waking the regiment of soldiers, when they 
turned a curve, and at the end of the road, a few hundred 
yards ahead, stood several horsemen. 

“There they are,” exclaimed both boys. 

“No, that is a picket,” said their mother; “gallop on,, 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


14 

Frank, and tell them we are bringing breakfast for the 
regiment.” 

Frank dashed ahead, and soon they saw a soldier ride 
forward to meet him, and, after a few words, return with 
him to his comrades. Then, while they were still a hun¬ 
dred yards distant, they saw Frank, who had received 
some directions, start off again toward the bridge,, at a 
hard gallop. The picket had told him to go straight on 
down the hill, and he would find the camp just the other 
side of the bridge. He accordingly rode on, feeling very 
important at being allowed to go alone to the camp on 
such a mission. 

As he reached a turn in the road, just above the river, 
the whole regiment lay swarming below him among the 
large trees on the bank of the little stream. The horses 
were picketed to bushes and stakes, in long rows, the sad¬ 
dles lying on the ground, not far off; and hundreds of 
men were moving about, some in full uniform and others 
without coat or vest. A half-dozen wagons with sheets 
on them stood on one side among the trees, near which 
several fires were smoking, with men around them. 

As Frank clattered up to the bridge,, a soldier with a 
gun on his arm, who had been standing by the railing, 
walked out to the middle of the bridge. 

“Halt! Where are you going in such a hurry, my 
young man ?” he said. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


T S 

“I wish to see the colonel/’ said Frank, repeating as 
nearly as he could the words the picket had told him. 

“What do you want with him ?” 

Frank was tempted not to tell him; but he was so im¬ 
patient to deliver his message before the others should 
arrive, that he told him what he had come for. 

“There he is,” said the sentinel, pointing to a place 
among the trees where stood at least five hundred men. 

Frank looked, expecting to recognize the colonel by 
his noble bearing, or splendid uniform, or some striking 
marks. 

“Where?” he asked,, in doubt; for while a number of 
the men were in uniform, he knew these to be privates. 

“There,” said the sentry, pointing; “by that stump, 
near the yellow horse-blanket.” 

Frank looked again. The only man he could fix upon 
by the description was a young fellow, washing his face 
in a tin basin, and he felt that this could not be the colo¬ 
nel; but he did not like to appear dull, so he thanked the 
man and rode on, thinking he would go to the point in¬ 
dicated, and ask some one else to show him the officer. 

He felt quite grand as he rode in among the men, 
who, he thought,, would recognize his importance and 
treat him accordingly; but, as he passed on, instead of 
paying him, the respect he had expected, they began to 
guy him with all sorts of questions. 


i6 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


“Hullo, bud, going to jine the cavalry?” asked one. 
“Which is oldest; you or your horse?” inquired another. 

“How’s pa—and ma?” “Does your mother know 
you’re out?” asked others. One soldier walked up, and 
putting his hand on the bridle, proceeded affably to ask 
him after his health, and that of every member of his 
family. At first Frank did not understand that they were 
making fun of him, but it dawned on him when the man 
asked him solemnly: 

“Are there any Yankees around, that you were run¬ 
ning away so fast just now?” 

“No; if there were I’d never have found yon here,,” 
said Frank, shortly, in reply; which at once turned the tide 
in his favor and diverted the ridicule from himself to his 
teaser, who was seized by some of his comrades and car¬ 
ried off with much laughter and slapping on the back. 

“I wish to see Colonel Marshall,” said Frank, pushing 
his way through the group that surrounded him, and 
riding up to the man who was still occupied at the basin 
on the stump. 

“All right, sir, I’m the man,” said the individual, 
cheerily looking up with his face dripping and rosy from 
its recent scrubbing. 

“You the colonel!” exclaimed Frank, suspicious that he 
was again being ridiculed, and thinking it impossible that 
this slim, rosy-faced youngster, who was scarcely stouter 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


1 7 

than Hugh, and who was washing in a tin basin, could 
be the commander of all these soldierly-looking men, many 
of whom were old enough to be his father. 

“Yes, Fm the lieutenant-colonel. I’m in command,” 
said the gentleman, smiling at him over the towel. 

Something made Frank understand that this was 
really the officer, and he gave his message, which was re¬ 
ceived with many expressions of thanks. 

‘Won't you get down? Here, Campbell, take this 
horse, will you?” he called to a soldier, as Frank sprang 
from his horse. The orderly stepped forward and took 
the bridle. 

“Now, come with me,” said the colonel, leading the 
way. “We must get ready to receive your mother. 
There are some ladies coming—and breakfast,” he called 
to a group who were engaged in the same occupation he 
had just ended, and whom Frank knew by instinct to 
be officers. 

The information seemed to electrify the little knot ad¬ 
dressed; for they began to rush around, and in a few mo¬ 
ments they all were in their uniforms, and surrounding 
the colonel, who,, having brushed his hair with the aid of 
a little glass hung on a bush, had hurried into his coat and 
was buckling on his sword and giving orders in a way 
which at once satisfied Frank that he was every inch a 
colonel. 


i8 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


“Now let us go and receive your mother,” said he 
to the boy. As he strode through the camp with his coat 
tightly buttoned, his soft hat set jauntily on the side of his 
head, his plumes sweeping over its side, and his sword 
clattering at his spurred heel, he presented a very differ¬ 
ent appearance from that which he had made a little be¬ 
fore, with his head in a tin basin, and his face covered with 
lather. In fact, Colonel Marshall was already a noted 
officer, and before the end of the war he attained still 
higher rank and reputation. 

The colonel met the rest of the party at the bridge, 
and introduced himself and several officers who soon 
joined him. The negroes were directed to take the pro¬ 
visions over to the other side of the stream into the camp, 
and in a little while the whole regiment were enjoying 
the breakfast. The boys and their mother had at the 
colonel's request joined his mess, in which was one of 
their cousins, the brother of their cousin Belle. 

The gentlemen could eat scarcely anything, they were 
so busy attending to the wants of the ladies. The colonel, 
particularly, waited on their cousin Belle all the time. 

As soon as they had finished the colonel left them, and 
a bugle blew. In a minute all was bustle. Officers were 
giving orders; horses were saddled and brought out; and, 
by what seemed magic to the boys, the men, who just 
before were scattered about among the trees laughing and 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


19 

eating, were standing by their horses all in proper order. 
The colonel and the officers came and said good-bye. 

Again the bugle blew. Every man was in his saddle. 
A few words by the colonel, followed by other words from 
the captains, and the column started, turning across the 
bridge, the feet of the horses thundering on the planks. 
Then the regiment wound up the hill at a walk, the men 
singing snatches of a dozen songs,, of which “The Bonnie 
Blue Flag,’’ “Lorena,” and “Carry Me Back to Old Vir¬ 
ginia Shore/’ were the chief ones. 

It seemed to the boys that to be a soldier was the 
noblest thing on earth; and that this regiment could do 
anything. 


i 


CHAPTER IV. 


7 TER this it became a common thing for passing 



regiments to camp near Oakland, and the fire 


-“-blazed many a night, cooking for the soldiers, till 
the chickens were crowing in the morning. The negroes 
all had hen-houses and raised their own chickens, and 
when a camp was near them they used to drive a thriving 
trade on their own account, selling eggs and chickens to 
the privates while the officers were entertained in the 
“gret house.” 

It was thought an honor to furnish food to the sol¬ 
diers. Every soldier was to the boys a hero, and each 
young officer might rival Ivanhoe or Coeur de Lion. 

It was not a great while, however,, before they learned 
that all soldiers were not like their favorite knights. At 
any rate, thefts were frequent. The absence of men from 
the plantations, and the constant passing of strangers 
made stealing easy; hen-roots were robbed time after time, 
and even pigs and sheep were taken without any trace of 
the thieves. The boys' hen-house, however, which was 
in the yard, had never been troubled. It was about their 
only possession, and they took great pride in it. 


20 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


21 


One night the boys were fast asleep in their room in 
the office, with old Bruno and Nick curled up on their 
sheep-skins on the floor. Hugh was away, so the boys 
were the only -“men” on the place,, and felt that they 
were the protectors of the plantation. The frequent 
thefts had made every one very suspicious, and the boys 
had made up their minds to be on the watch, and, if pos¬ 
sible, to catch the thief. 

The negroes said that the deserters did the stealing. 

On the night in question, the boys were sound asleep 
when old Bruno gave a low growl, and then began walk¬ 
ing and sniffing up and down the room. Soon Nick gave 
a sharp, quick bark. 

Frank waked first. He was not startled, for the dogs 
were in the habit of barking whenever they wished to go 
out-of-doors. Now, however, they kept it up, and it was 
in a strain somewhat different from their usual signal. 

“What’s the matter with you? Go and lie down, 
Bruno,” called Frank. “Hush up, Nick!” But Bruno 
would not lie down, and Nick would not keep quiet, though 
at the sound of Frank’s voice they felt less responsibility, 
and contented themselves with a low growling. 

After a little while Frank was on the point of dropping 
off to sleep again, when he heard a sound out in the yard, 
which at once thoroughly awakened him. He nudged 
Willy in the side. 


22 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


“Willy—Willy, wake up; there’s some one moving 
around outdoors.” 

“Umm-mm,,” groaned Willy, turning over and settling 
himself for another nap. 

The sound of a chicken chirping out in fright reached 
Frank’s ear. 

“Wake up, Willy!” he called, pinching him hard. 
“There’s some one at the hen-house.” 

Willy was awake in a second. The boys consulted as 
to what should be done. Willy was sceptical. He 
thought Frank had been dreaming, or that it was only 
Uncle Balia, or “some one” moving about the yard. But 
a second cackle of warning reached them, and in a minute 
both boys were out of bed pulling on their clothes with 
trembling impatience. 

“Let’s go and wake Uncle Balia,” proposed Willy, 
getting himself all tangled in the legs of his trousers. 

“No; I’ll tell you what, let’s catch him ourselves,” sug¬ 
gested Frank. 

“All right,” assented Willy. “We’ll catch him and 
lock him up; suppose he’s got a pistol? your gun maybe 
won’t go off; it doesn’t always burst the cap.” 

“Well, your old musket is loaded, and you can hold 
him, while I snap the cap at him, and get it ready.” 

“All right—I can’t find my jacket—I’ll hold him.” 

“Where, in the world is my hat?” whispered Frank. 




TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


23 

“Never mind, it must be in the house. Let’s go out the 
back way. We can get out without his hearing us.” 

“What shall we do with the dogs? Let’s shut them 
up. 

“No, let’s take ’em with us. We can keep them quiet 
and hold ’em in, and they can track him if he gets away.” 

“All rightand the boys slowly opened the door, and 
crept stealthily out, Frank clutching his double-barrelled 
gun, and Willy hugging a heavy musket which he had 
found and claimed as one of the prizes of war. It was 
almost pitch-dark. 

They decided that one should take one side of the hen- 

house, and one the other side (in such a way that if they 

/ " 

had to shoot, they would almost certainly shoot one an¬ 
other!) but before they had separated both dogs jerked 
loose from their hands and dashed away in the dark¬ 
ness,, barking furiously. 

“There he goes round the garden,” shouted Willy, as 
the sound of footsteps like those of a man running with 
all his might came from the direction which the dogs had 
taken. 

“Come on,” and both started; but, after taking a few 
steps, they stopped to listen so that they might trace the 
fugitive. 

A faint noise behind them arrested their attention, 
and Frg,nk tiptoed back toward the hen-house. It was 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


24 

too dark to see much, but he heard the hen-house door 
creak, and was conscious even in the darkness that it was 
being pushed slowly open. 

“Here’s one, Willy,” he shouted,, at the same time put¬ 
ting his gun to his shoulder and pulling the trigger. The 
hammer fell with a sharp “click” just as the door was 
snatched to with a bang. The cap had failed to explode, 
or the chicken-eating days of the individual in the hen¬ 
house would have ended then and there. 

The boys stood for some moments with their guns 
pointed at the door of the hen-house expecting the per¬ 
son within to attempt to burst out; but the click of the 
hammer and their hurried conference without, in which 
it was promptly agreed to let him have both barrels if he 
appeared, reconciled him to remaining within. 

After some time it was decided to go and wake Uncle 
Balia, and confer with him as to the proper disposition 
of their captive. Accordingly, Frank went off to obtain 
help, while Willy remained to watch the hen-house. As 
Frank left he called back: 

“Willy, you take good aim at him, and if he pokes his 
head out—let him have it!” 

This Willy solemnly promised to do. 

Frank was hardly out of hearing before Willy was 
surprised to hear the prisoner call him, by name in the 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


25 

most friendly and familiar manner,, although the voice was 
a strange one. 

“Willy, is that you?” called the person inside. 

“Yes.” 

“Where's Frank?” 

“Gone to get Uncle Balia.” 

“Did you see that other fellow?” 

“Yes.” 

“I wish you'd shot him. He brought me here and 
played a joke on me. He told me this was a house I could 
sleep in, and shut me up in here,—and blest if I don’t 
b’lieve it’s nothin' but a hen-house. Let me out here a 
minute,” he continued, after a pause, cajolingly. 

“No, I won't,” said Willy firmly, getting his gun ready. 

There was a pause, and then from, the depths of the 
hen-house issued the most awful groan: 

“Umm! Ummm!! Ummmm!!!” 

Willy was frightened. 

“Umm! Umm!” was repeated. 

“What's the matter with you?” asked Willy, feeling 
sorry in spite of himself. 

“Oh! Oh! Oh! I'm so sick,” groaned the man in the 
hen-house. 

“How? What's the matter?” 

“That man that fooled me in here gave me something 
to drink, and it's pizened me; oh! oh! oh! I'm dying.” 


26 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


It was a horrible groan. 

Willy's heart relented. He moved to the door and 
was just about to open it to look in when a light flashed 
across the yard from Uncle Balia's house, and he saw him 
coming with a flaming light-wood knot in his hand. 




CHAPTER V. 


I NSTEAD of opening the door, therefore, Willy called 
to the old man, who was leisurely crossing the yard: 
“Run, Uncle Balia. Quick, run!” 

At the call Old Balia and Frank set out as fast as they 
could. 

“What's the matter? Is he done kill de chickens? 
Is he done got away ?” the old man asked, breathlessly. 
“No, he's dyin’,," shouted Willy. 

“Hi! is you shoot him?” asked the old driver. 

“No, that other man’s poisoned him. He was the rob¬ 
ber and he fooled this one,” explained Willy, opening the 
door and peeping anxiously in. 

“Go 'long, boy,—now, d’ye ever heah de better o' dat ? 
—dat man's foolin’ wid you; jes' tryin' to git yo’ to let 
him out.” 

“No, he isn't,” said Willy; “you ought to have heard 
him.” 

But both Balia and Frank were laughing at him, so he 
felt very shamefaced. He was relieved by hearing an¬ 
other groan. 

“Oh, oh, oh! Ah, ah!” 


27 


28 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


“You hear that?” he asked, triumphantly. 

“I boun’ I’ll see what’s the matter with him, the roscol! 
Stan’ right dyah, y’ all, an’ if he try to run shoot him, 
but mine you don’ hit me,” and the old man walked up 
to the door, and standing on one side flung it open. “What 
you doin’ in dyah after dese chillern’s chickens?” he called 
fiercely. 

“Hello, old man, ’s ’at you? Fs mighty sick,” mut¬ 
tered the person within. Old Balia held his torch in¬ 
side the house,, amid a confused cackle and flutter of 
fowls. 

“Well, ef ’tain’ a white man, and a soldier at dat!” 
he exclaimed. “What you doin’ heah, robbin’ white folks’ 
hen-roos’?” he called, roughly. “Git up off dat groun’; 
you ain’ sick.’ ; 

“Let me get up, Sergeant,—hie—don’t you heah the 
roll-call?—the tent’s mighty dark; what you fool me in 
here for?” muttered the man inside. 

The boys could see that he was stretched out on the 
floor, apparently asleep, and that he was a soldier in uni¬ 
form,. Balia stepped inside. 

“Is he dead?” asked both boys as Balia caught him by 
the arms, lifted him, and let him fall again limp on the 
floor. 

“Nor* he’s dead-drunk,” said Balia, picking up an 



THE OLD MAN WALKED UP TO THE DOOR, AND STANDING ON ONE 

SIDE FLUNG IT OPEN. 














































































































































TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


3 1 

empty flask. “Come on out. Let me see what I gwi’ 
do wid you?” he said, scratching his head. 

“I know what I gwi’ do wid you. I gwi’ lock you up 
right whar you is.” 

“Uncle Balia, s’pose he gets well, won't he get out?” 

“Ain' I gwi' lock him up? Dat’s good from you, who 
was jes’ gwi’ let ’im out ef me an’ Frank had n’t come up 
when we did.” 

Willy stepped back abashed. His heart accused him 
and told him the charge was true. Still he ventured one 
more question: 

“Hadn’t you better take the hens out?” 

“Nor; ’tain’ no use to teck nuttin’ out dyah. Ef he 
comes to, he know we got ’im, an’ he dyahson’ trouble 
nuttin’.” 

And the old man pushed to the door and fastened the 
iron hasp over the strong staple. Then, as the lock had 
been broken, he took a large nail from his pocket and 
fastened it in the staple with a stout string so that it could 
not be shaken out. All the time he was working he was 
talking to the boys, or rather to himself, for their benefit. 

“Now,, you see ef we don’ find him heah in the mornin’! 
Willy jes’ gwi’ let you get ’way, but a man got you now, 
wha’ar’ been handlin’ horses an’ know how to hole ’em in 
the stalls. I boun’ he’ll have to butt like a ram to git out 
dis log hen-house,” he said, finally, as he finished tying 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


32 

the last knot in his string, and gave the door a vigorous 
rattle to test its strength. 

Willy had been too much abashed at his mistake to 
fully appreciate all of the witticisms over the prisoner, but 
Frank enjoyed them almost as much as Unc’ Ealla him¬ 
self. 

“Now y’ all go ’long to bed, an’ I’ll go back an’ teck 
a little nap myself,” said he, in parting. “Ef he gits out 
that hen-house I’ll give you ev’y chicken I got. But he 
ain’ gwine git out. A man's done fasten him up dyah.” 

The boys went off to bed,, Willy still feeling depressed 
over his ridiculous mistake. They were soon fast asleep, 
and if the dogs barked again they did not hear them. 

The next thing they knew, Lucy Ann, convulsed with 
laughter, was telling them a story about Uncle Balia and 
the man in the hen-house. They jumped up, and pulling 
on their clothes ran out in the yard, thinking to see the 
prisoner. 

Instead of doing so, they found Uncle Balia standing 
by the hen-house with a comical look of mystification and 
chagrin; the roof had been lifted off at one end and not 
only the prisoner, but every chicken was gone! 

The boys were half inclined to cry; Balia’s look, how¬ 
ever, set them to laughing. 

“Unc’ Balia,, you got to give me every chicken you 
got, ’cause you said you would,” said Willy. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


33 

“Go 'way from heah, boy. Don' pester me when I 
studyin' to see which way he got out." 

“You ain't never had a horse get through the roof 
before, have you?" said Frank. 

“Go 'way from here, I tell you," said the old man, 
walking around the house, looking at it. 

As the boys went back to wash and dress themselves, 
they heard Balia explaining to Lucy Ann and some of the 
other servants that “the man them chillern let git away 
had just come back and tooken out the one he had locked 
up"; a solution of the mystery he always stoutly insisted 
upon. 

One thing, however,, the person's escape effected—it 
prevented Willy's ever hearing any more of his mistake; 
but that did not keep him now and then from asking Uncle 
Balia “if he had fastened his horses well." 


CHAPTER VI. 


T HESE hens were not the last things stolen from 
Oakland. Nearly all the men in the country had 
gone with the army. Indeed, with the exception 
of a few overseers who remained to work the farms, every 
man in the neighborhood, between the ages of seventeen 
and fifty, was in the army. The country was thus left 
almost wholly unprotected, and it would have been entirely 
so but for the “Home Guard,” as it was called, which was 
a company composed of young boys and the few old men 
who remained at home, and who had volunteered for 
service as a local guard, or police body, for the neighbor¬ 
hood of their homes. 

Occasionally, too, later on, a small detachment off 
men, under a leader known as a “conscript-officer,” would 
come through the country hunting for any men who were 
subject to the conscript law but who had evaded it, and 
for deserters who had run away from the army and 
refused to return. 

These two classes of troops, however, stood on a very 
different footing. The Home Guard was regarded with 
much respect, for it was composed of those whose extreme 

134 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


35 


age or youth alone withheld them from active service; 
and every youngster in its ranks looked upon it as a 
training school, and was ready to die in defence of his 
home if need were, and, besides, expected to obtain per¬ 
mission to go into the army “next year.” 

The conscript-guard, on the other hand, were grown 
men,, and were thought to be shirking the very dangers 
and hardships into which they were trying to force others. 

A few miles from Oakland, on the side toward the 
mountain road and beyond the big woods, lay a district 
of virgin forest and old-field pines which, even before the 
war, had acquired a reputation of an unsavory nature, 
though its inhabitants were a harmless people. No high¬ 
ways ran through this region, and the only roads which 
entered it were mere wood-ways, filled with bushes and 
carpeted with pine-tags; and, being travelled only by the 
inhabitants,, appeared to outsiders “to jes’ peter out,” 
as the phrase went. This territory was known by the 
unpromising name of Holetown. 

Its denizens were a peculiar but kindly race known to 
the boys as “poor white folks,” and called by the negroes, 
with great contempt, “po* white trash.” Some of them 
owned small places in the pines; but the majority were 
simply tenants. They were an inoffensive people, and 
their worst vices were intemperance and evasion of the 
tax-laws. 


36 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


They made their living—or rather, they existed—by 
fishing and hunting; and, to eke it out, attempted the 
cultivation of little patches of corn and tobacco near their 
cabins, or in the bottoms where small branches ran into 
the stream already mentioned. 

In appearance they were usually so thin and sallow 
that one had to look at them twice to see them, clearly. 
At best, they looked vague and illusive. 

They were brave enough. At the outbreak of the 
war nearly all of the men in this community enlisted, 
thinking, as many others did, that war was more like 
play than work, and consisted more of resting than of 
laboring. Although most of them, when in battle,, showed 
the greatest fearlessness, yet the duties of camp soon 
became irksome to them, and they grew sick of the 
restraint and drilling of camp-life; so some of them, when 
refused a furlough, took it, and came home. Others 
stayed at home after leave had ended, feeling secure in 
their stretches of pine and swamp, not only from the 
feeble efforts of the conscript-guard, but from any parties 
who might be sent in search of them. 

In this way it happened, as time went by, that Hole- 
town became known to harbor a number of deserters. 

According to the negroes, it was full of them; and 
many stories were told about glimpses of men dodging 
behind trees in the big woods, or rushing away through 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


37 

the underbrush like wild cattle. And, though the grown 
people doubted whether the negroes had not been startled 
by some of the hogs, which were quite wild, feeding in 
the woods, the boys were satisfied that the negroes really 
had seen deserters. 

This became a certainty when there came report after 
report of these wood-skulkers, and when the conscript- 
guard, with the brightest of uniforms, rode by with as 
much show and noise as if on a fox-hunt. Then it became 
known that deserters were, indeed, infesting the piny dis¬ 
trict of Holetown, and in considerable numbers. 

Some of them, it was said, were pursuing agriculture 
and all their ordinary vocations as openly as in time of 
peace, and more industriously. They had a regular code 
of signals, and nearly every person in the Holetown settle¬ 
ment was in league with them. 

When the conscript-guard came along, there would 
be a rush of tow-headed children through the woods, or 
some of the women about the cabins would blow a horn 
lustily; after which not a man could be found in all the 
district. The horn told just how many men were in the 
guard, and which path they were following; every member 
of the troop being honored with a short, quick “toot.” 

“What are you blowing that horn for?’' sternly asked 
the guard one morning of an old woman,—old Mrs. Ha£, 


38 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

who stood out in front of her little house blowing like 
Boreas in the pictures. 

“Jes’ blowin’ fur Millindy to come to dinner,” she said, 
sullenly. “Can’t y’ all let a po’ ’ooman call her gals to 
git some’n’ to eat? You got all her boys in d’army, killin’ 
’em; why n’t yo’ go and git kilt some yo’self, ’stidder ridin’ 
’bout heah tromplin’ all over po’ folk’s chickens?” 

When the troop returned in the evening, she was still 
blowing; “blowin’ fur Millindy to come home,” she said, 
with more sharpness than before. But there must have 
been many Millindys, for horns were sounding all through 
the settlement. 

The deserters, at such times,, were said to take to the 
swamps, and marvellous rumors were abroad of one or 
more caves, all fitted up, wherein they concealed them¬ 
selves, like the robbers in the stories the boys were so 
fond of reading. 

After a while thefts of pigs and sheep became so 
common that they were charged to the deserters. 

Finally it grew to be such a pest that the ladies in the 
neighborhood asked the Home Guard to take action in 
the matter, and after some delay it became known that 
this valorous body was going to invade Holetown and 
capture the deserters or drive them away. Hugh was 
to accompany them, of course; and he looked very hand¬ 
some, as well as very important, when he started out on 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


39 


horseback to join the troop. It was his first active service; 
and with his trousers in his boots and his pistol in his belt 
he looked as brave as Julius Caesar, and quite laughed at 
his mother's fears for him, as she kissed him good-bye 
and walked out with him to his horse, which Balia held 
at the gate. 

The boys asked leave to go with him; but Hugh was 
so scornful over their request, and looked so soldierly as 
he galloped away with the other men that the boys felt 
as cheap as possible. 



CHAPTER VII. 


W HEN the boys went into the house they found 
that their Aunt Mary had a headache that 
morning, and, even with the best intentions 
of doing her duty in teaching them, had been forced to 
go to bed. Their mother was too much occupied with 
her charge of providing for a family of over a dozen 
white persons, and five times as many colored dependents, 
to give any time to acting as substitute in the school-room, 
so the boys found themselves with a holiday before them. 
It seemed vain to try to shoot duck on the creek,, and the 
perch were averse to biting. The boys accordingly 
determined to take both guns and to set out for a real 
hunt in the big woods. 

They received their mother's permission, and after a 
lunch was prepared they started in high glee, talking about 
the squirrels and birds they expected to kill. 

Frank had his gun, and Willy had the musket; and 
both carried a plentiful supply of powder and some toler¬ 
ably round slugs made from cartridges. 

They usually hunted in the part of the woods nearest 

4 * 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


4i 


the house, and they knew that game was not very abundant 
there; so, as a good long day was before them, they deter¬ 
mined to go over to the other side of the woods. 

They accordingly pushed on, taking a path which led 
through the forest. They went entirely through the big 
woods without seeing anything but one squirrel, and 
presently found themselves at the extreme edge of Hole- 
town. They were just grumbling at the lack of game 
when they heard a distant horn. The sound came from 
perhaps a mile or more away, but was quite distinct. 

“What’s that? Somebody fox-hunting?—or is it a 
dinner-horn?” asked Willy, listening intently. 

“It’s a horn to warn deserters, that’s what ’tis,” said 
Frank, pleased to show his superior knowledge. 

“I tell you what to do:—let’s go and hunt deserters,” 
said Willy, eagerly. 

“All right. Won’t that be fun!” and both boys set 
out down the road toward a point where they knew one 
of the paths ran into the pine-district, talking of the num¬ 
bers of prisoners they expected to take. 

In an instant they were as alert and eager as young 
hounds on a trail. They had mapped out a plan before, 
and they knew exactly what they had to do. Frank was 
the captain, by right of his being older; and Willy was 
lieutenant, and was to obey orders. The chief thing that 
troubled them was that they did not wish to be seen by 


42 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


any of the women or children about the cabins,, for they 
all knew the boys, because they were accustomed to come 
to Oakland for supplies; then, too, the boys wished to 
remain on friendly terms with their neighbors. Another 
thing worried them. They did not know what to do with 
their prisoners after they should have captured them. 
However, they pushed on and soon came to a dim cart-way, 
which ran at right-angles to the main road and which 
went into the very heart of Holetown. Here they halted 
to reconnoitre and to inspect their weapons. 

Even from the main road, the track, as it led off 
through the overhanging woods with thick underbrush of 
chinquapin bushes, appeared to the boys to have some¬ 
thing strange about it, though they had at other times 
walked it from end to end. Still,, they entered boldly, 
clutching their guns. Willy suggested that they should 
go in Indian file and that the rear one should step in the 
other’s footprints as the Indians do; but Frank thought 
it was best to walk abreast, as the Indians walked in their 
peculiar way only to prevent an enemy who crossed their 
trail from knowing how many they were; and, so far 
from it being any disadvantage for the deserters to know 
their number, it was even better that they should know 
there were two, so that they would not attack from the 
rear. Accordingly, keeping abreast, they struck in; each 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


43 

taking the woods on one side of the road, which he was 
to watch and for which he was to be responsible. 

The farther they went the more indistinct the track 
became, and the wilder became the surrounding woods. 
They proceeded with great caution, examining every 
particularly thick clump of bushes; peeping behind each 
very large tree; and occasionally even taking a glance up 
among its boughs; for they had themselves so often 
planned how,, if pursued, they would climb trees and con¬ 
ceal themselves, that they would not have been at all 
surprised to find a fierce deserter, armed to the teeth, 
crouching among the branches. 

Though they searched carefully every spot where a 
deserter could possibly lurk, they passed through the oak 
woods and were deep in the pines without having seen 
any foe or heard a noise which could possibly proceed 
from one. A squirrel had daringly leaped from the trunk 
of a hickory-tree and run into the woods, right before 
them, stopping impudently to take a good look at them; 
but they were hunting larger game than squirrels, and they 
resisted the temptation to take a shot at him,—an exercise 
of virtue which brought them a distinct feeling of pleasure. 
They were, however., beginning to be embarrassed as to 
their next course. They could hear the dogs barking 
farther on in the pines, and knew they were approaching 
the vicinity of the settlement; for they had crossed the 


44 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


little creek which ran through a thicket of elder bushes 
and “gums,” and which marked the boundary of Hole- 
town. Little paths, too, every now and then turned off 
from the main track and went into the pines, each leading 

I 

to a cabin or bit of creek-bottom deeper in. They there-' 
fore were in a real dilemma concerning what to do; and 
Willy’s suggestion, to eat lunch, was a welcome one. They 
determined to go a little way into the woods,, where they 
could not be seen, and had just taken the lunch out of the 
game-bag and were turning into a by-path, when they 
met a man who was coming along at a slow, lounging 
walk, and carrying a long single-barrelled shot-gun across 
his arm. 

When first they heard him, they thought he might be 
a deserter; but when he came nearer they saw that he 
was simply a countryman out hunting; for his old game- 
bag (from which peeped a squirrel’s tail) was over his 
shoulder, and he had no weapon at all, excepting that old 
squirrel-gun. 

"Good morning, sir,,” said both boys, politely. 

"Mornin’! What luck y’ all had?” he asked good- 
naturedly, stopping and putting the butt of his gun on 
the ground, and resting lazily on it, preparatory to a chat. 

"We’re not hunting; we’re hunting deserters.” 

"Huntin’ deserters!” echoed the man with a smile 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


45 


which broke into a chuckle of amusement as the thought 
worked its way into his brain. “Ain’t you see’ none?” 

“No,” said both boys in a breath, greatly pleased at 
his friendliness. “Do you know where any are?” 

The man scratched his head, seeming to reflect. 

“Well, ’pears to me I hearn tell o’ some, Toun’ to’des 
that-a-ways„” making a comprehensive sweep of his arm 
in the direction just opposite to that which the boys were 
taking. “I seen the conscrip’-guard a little while ago 
pokin’ ’roun’ this-a-way; but Lor’, that ain’ the way to 
ketch deserters. I knows every foot o’ groun’ this-a-way, 
an’ ef they was any deserters roun’ here I’d be mighty apt 
to know it.” 

This announcement was an extinguisher to the boys’ 
hopes. Clearly, they were going in the wrong direction. 

“We are just going to eat our lunch,” said Frank; 
“won’t you join us?” 

Willy added his invitation to his brother’s, and their 
friend politely accepted, suggesting that they should walk 
back a little way and find a log. This all three did; and 
in a few minutes they were enjoying the lunch which the 
boys’ mother had provided, while the stranger was telling 
the boys his views about deserters, which, to say the least,, 
were very original. 

“I seen the conscrip’-guard jes’ this mornin’, ridin’ 
’round whar they knowd they warn’ no deserters, but 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


46 

ole womens and children/’ he said with his mouth full. 
“Why n’t they go whar they knows deserters is?” he asked. 

“Where are they? We heard they had a cave down 
on the river, and we were going there,” declared the boys. 

“Down on the river?—a cave? Ain’ no cave down 
thar, without it’s below Rockett’s mill; fur I’ve hunted 
and fished ev’y foot o’ that river up an’ down both sides, 
an’ ’tain’ a hole thar, big enough to hide a’ ole hyah, 
I ain’ know.” 

This proof was too conclusive to admit of further 
argument. 

“Why don’t you go in the army?” asked Willy, after 
a brief reflection. 

“What? Why don’t I go in the army?” repeated the 
hunter. “Why, I’s in the army! You didn’ think I warn’t 
in the army, did you?” 

The hunter’s tone and the expression of his face were 
so full of surprise that Willy felt deeply mortified at his 
rudeness, and began at once to stammer something to 
explain himself. 

“I b’longs to Colonel Marshall’s regiment,” continued 
the man, “an’ I’s been home sick on leave o’ absence. Got 
wounded in the leg, an’ I’s jes’ gettin’ well. I ain’ rightly 
well enough to go back now, but I’s anxious to git back; 
I’m gwine to-morrow mornin’ ef I don’ go this evenin’. 
You see I kin hardly walk now!” and to demonstrate his 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


47 

lameness, he got up and limped a few yards. “I ain’ well 
yit,” he pursued, returning and dropping into his seat on 
the log, with his face drawn up by the pain the exertion 
had brought on. 

“Let me see your wound. Is it sore now?” asked 
Willy, moving nearer to the man with a look expressive 
of mingled curiosity and sympathy. 

“You can’t see it; it’s up heah,” said the soldier, 
touching the upper part of his hip; “an’ I got another one 
heah,” he added, placing his hand very gently to his side. 
“This one’s whar a Yankee run me through with his sword. 
Now, that one was where a piece of shell hit me,—I don’t 
keer nothin’ ’bout that,” and he opened his shirt and 
showed a triangular, purple scar on his shoulder. 

“You certainly must be a brave soldier,” exclaimed 
both boys, impressed at sight of the scar, their voices 
softened by fervent admiration. 

“Yes, I kep’ up with the bes’ of ’em,” he said, with a 
pleased smile. 

Suddenly a horn began to blow, “toot—toot—toot,” as 
if all the “Millindys” in the world were being summoned. 
It was so near the boys that it quite startled them. 

“That’s for the deserters, now,” they both exclaimed. 

Their friend looked calmly up and down the road, 
both ways. 

“Them rascally conscrip’-guard been tellin’ you all 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


48 

that, to gi’ ’em some excuse for keepin’ out o’ th’ army 
theyselves—that’s all. Th’ aiir gwine ketch no deserters 
any whar in all these parts, an’ you kin tell ’em so. I’m 
gwine down thar an’ see what that horn’s a-blowin’ fur; 
hit’s somebody’s dinner horn, or somp’n’,” he added, rising 
and taking up his game-bag. 

“Can’t we go with you?” asked the boys. 

“Well, nor, I reckon you better not,” he drawled; 
“thar’s some right bad dogs down thar in the pines,—mon- 
s’us bad; an’ I’s gwine cut through the woods an’ see ef I 
can’t pick up a squ’rr’l, gwine ’long, for the ole ’ooman’s 
supper, as I got to go ’way to-night or to-morrow; she’s 
mighty poorly.” 

“Is she poorly much ?” asked Willy, greatly concerned. 
“We’ll get mamma to come and see her to-morrow, and 
bring her some bread.” 

“Nor, she ain’ so sick; that is to say, she jis’ poorly 
and ’sturbed in her mind. She gittin’ sort o’ old. Here, 
y’ all take these squ’rr’ls,” he said, taking the squirrels 
from his old game-bag and tossing them at Willy’s feet. 
Both boys protested, but he insisted. “Oh, yes; I kin get 
some mo’ fur her. 

“Y’ all better go home. Well, good-bye, much obliged 
to you,” and he strolled off with his gun in the bend of his 
arm, leaving the boys to admire and talk over his courage. 

They turned back, and had gone about a quarter of a 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


49 


mile, when they heard a great trampling of horses behind 
them. They stopped to listen, and in a little while a 
squadron of cavalry came in sight. The boys stepped to 
one side of the road to wait for them, eager to tell the 
important information they had received from their friend, 
that there were no deserters in that section. In a hurried 
consultation they agreed not to tell that they had been 
hunting deserters themselves,, as they knew the soldiers 
would only have a laugh at their expense. 

“Hello, boys, what luck?” called the officer in the lead, 
in a friendly manner. 

They told him they had not shot anything; that the 
squirrels had been given to them; and then both boys 
inquired: 

“You all hunting for deserters?” 

“You seen any?” asked the leader, carelessly, while 
one or two men pressed their horses forward eagerly. 

“No, th’ ain't any deserters in this direction at all,” 
said the boys, with conviction in their manner. 

“How do you know ?” asked the officer. 

“ 'Cause a gentleman told us so.” 

“Who? When? What gentleman?” 

“A gentleman who met us a little while ago.” 

“How long ago? Who was he?” 

“Don't know who he was,” said Frank. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


50 

“When we were eating our snack,” put in Willy, not 
to be left out. 

“How was he dressed? Where was it? What sort of 
man was he?” eagerly inquired the leading trooper. 

The boys proceeded to describe their friend, impressed 
by the intense interest accorded them by the listeners. 

“He was a sort of man with red hair, and wore a pair 
of gray breeches and an old pair of shoes, and was in his 
shirt-sleeves.” Frank was the spokesman. 

“And he had a gun—a long squirrel-gun,” added 
Willy, “and he said he belonged to Colonel Marshall's regi¬ 
ment.” 

“Why, that's Tim Mills. He's a deserter himself,” 
exclaimed the captain. 

“No, he ain't —he ain't any deserter,” protested both 
at once. “He is a mighty brave soldier, and he's been 
home on a furlough to get well of a wound on his leg where 
he was shot.” 

“Yes, and it ain't well yet, but he's going back to his 
command to-night or to-morrow morning; and he's got 
another wound in his side where a Yankee ran him through 
with his sword. We know he ain’t any deserter.” 

“How do you know all this?” asked the officer. 

“He told us so himself, just now—a little while ago, 
that is,” said the boys. 

The man laughed. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


5i 

“Why, he’s fooled you to death. That’s Tim himself, 
that’s been doing all the devilment about here. He is the 
worst deserter in the whole gang.” 

“We saw the wound on his shoulder,” declared the 
boys, still doubting. 

“I know it; he’s got one there,—that’s what I know 
him by. Which way did he go,—and how long has it 
been ?” 

“He went that way, down in the woods; and it’s been 
some time. He’s got away now.” 

The lads by this time were almost convinced of their 
mistake; but they could not prevent their sympathy from 
being on the side of their late agreeable companion. 

“We’ll catch the rascal,” declared the leader, very 
fiercely. “Come on, men,—he can’t have gone far;” and 
he wheeled his horse about and dashed back up the road 
at a great pace, followed by his men. The boys were half 
inclined to follow and aid in the capture; but Frank, after 
a moment’s thought, said solemnly: 

“No, Willy; an Arab never betrays a man who has 
eaten his salt. This man has broken bread with us; we 
cannot give him up. I don’t think we ought to have told 
about him as much as we did.” 

This was an argument not to be despised. 

A little later, as the boys trudged home, they heard the 
horns blowing again a regular “toot-toot” for “Millindy.” 


52 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


It struck them that supper followed dinner very quickly in 
Holetown. 

When the troop passed by in the evening the men were 
in very bad humor. They had had a fruitless addition to 
their ride, and some of them were inclined to say that the 
boys had never seen any man at all, which the boys 
thought was pretty silly, as the man had eaten at least 
two-thirds of their lunch. 

Somehow the story got out, and Hugh was very scorn¬ 
ful because the boys had given their lunch to a deserter. 


CHAPTER VIII. 




A S time went by the condition of things at Oakland 
changed—as it did everywhere else. The boys’ 
^mother, like all the other ladies of the country, was 
so devoted to the cause that she gave to the soldiers until 
there was nothing left. After that there was a failure of 
the crops, and the immediate necessities of the family and 
the hands on the place were great. 

There was no sugar nor coffee nor tea. These luxuries 
had been given up long before. An attempt was made to 
manufacture sugar out of the sorghum, or sugar-cane, 
which was now being cultivated as an experiment; but 
it proved unsuccessful, and molasses made from the cane 
was the only sweetening. The boys, however, never liked 
anything sweetened with molasses, so they gave up every¬ 
thing that had molasses in it. Sassafras tea was tried 
as a substitute for tea, and a drink made out of parched 
corn and wheat, of burnt sweet potato and other things, 
in the place of coffee; but none of them were fit to drink 
—at least so the boys thought. The wheat crop proved a 
failure; but the corn turned out very fine, and the boys 
learned to live on corn bread, as there was no wheat bread. 


53 


54 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


The soldiers still came by, and the house was often full 
of young officers who came to see the boys’ cousins. The 
boys used to ride the horses to and from the stables, and, 
being perfectly fearless, became very fine riders. 

Several times,, among the visitors, came the young 
colonel who had commanded the regiment that had camped 
at the bridge the first year of the war. It did not seem 
to the boys that Cousin Belle liked him, for she took much 
longer to dress when he came; and if there were other 
officers present she would take very little notice of the 
colonel. 

Both boys were in love with her, and after consider¬ 
able hesitation had written her a joint letter to tell her 
so, at which she laughed heartily and kissed them both 
and called them her sweethearts. But, though they were 
jealous of several young officers who came from time to 
time, they felt sorry for the colonel,—their cousin was so 
mean to him. They were on the best terms with him, and 
had announced their intention of going into his regiment 
if only the war should last long enough. When he came 
there was always a scramble to get his horse; though of 
all who came to Oakland he rode the wildest horses, as 
both boys knew by practical experience. 

At length the soldiers moved off too far to permit 
them to come on visits, and things were very dull. So it 
was for a long while. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


55 

But one evening in May, about sunset, as the boys 
were playing in the yard, a man came riding through the 
place on the way to Richmond. His horse showed that 
he had been riding hard. He asked the nearest way to 
“Ground-Squirrel Bridge.” The Yankees, he said, were 
coming. It was a raid. He had ridden ahead of them, 
and had left them about Greenbay depot, which they had 
set on fire. He was in too great a hurry to stop and get 
something to eat, and he rode off, leaving much excitement 
behind him; for Greenbay was only eight miles away, and 
Oakland lay right between two roads to Richmond, down 
one or the other of which the party of raiders must cer¬ 
tainly pass. 

It was the first time the boys ever saw their mother 
exhibit so much emotion as she then did. She came to 
the door and called: 

“Balia,, come here.” Her voice sounded to the boys a 
little strained and troubled,, and they ran up the steps 
and stood by her. Balia came to the portico, and looked up 
with an air of inquiry. He, too, showed excitement. 

“Balia, I want you to know that if you wish to go, you 
can do so.” 

“Hi, Mistis-” began Balia, with an air of reproach; 

but she cut him, short and kept on. 

“I want you all to know it.” She was speaking now 
so as to be heard by the cook and the maids who were 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


56 

standing about the yard listening to her. “I want you all 
to know it—every one on the place! You can go if you 
wish; but, if you go, you can never come back!” 

“Hi, Mistis,” broke in Uncle Balia, “whar is I got to 
go? I wuz born on dis place an* I 'spec’ to die here, an’ 
be buried right yonder and he turned and pointed up to 
the dark clumps of trees that marked the graveyard on 
the hill, a half mile away, where the colored people were 
buried. “Dat I does,” he affirmed positively. “Y’ all 
sticks by us, and we’ll stick by you.” 

“I know I ain’t gwine nowhar wid no Yankees or 
nothin’,” said Lucy Ann, in an undertone. 

“Dee tell me dee got hoofs and horns,” laughed one of 
the women in the yard. 

The boys’ mother started to say something further to 
Balia, but though she opened her lips, she did not speak; 
she turned suddenly and walked into the house and into 
her chamber,, where she shut the door behind her. The 
boys thought she was angry, but when they softly followed 
her a few minutes afterward, she got up hastily from 
, where she had been kneeling beside the bed, and they saw 
that she had been crying. A murmur under the window 
called them back to the portico. It had begun to grow 
dark; but a bright spot was glowing on the horizon, and 
on this every one’s gaze was fixed. 

“Where is it, Balia? What is it?” asked the boya’ 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


57 

mother, her voice no longer strained and harsh, but even 
softer than usual. 

“It's the depot, madam. They’s burnin’ it. That man 
told me they was burnin’ ev’ywhar they went.” 

“Will they be here to-night?” asked his mistress. 

“No, marm; I don’ hardly think they will. That man 
said they couldn’t travel more than thirty miles a day; 
but they’ll be plenty of ’em here to-morrow—to break¬ 
fast.” He gave a nervous sort of laugh. 

“Here,—you all come here,,” said their mistress to 
the servants. She went to the smoke-house and unlocked 
it. “Go in there and get down the bacon—take a piece, 
each of you.” A great deal was still left. “Balia, step 
here.” She called him aside and spoke earnestly in an 
undertone. 

“Yes’m, that’s so; that’s jes’ what I wuz gwine do,” 
the boys heard him say. 

Their mother sent the boys out. She went and locked 
herself in her room, but they heard her footsteps as she 
turned about within, and now and then they heard her 
opening and shutting drawers and moving chairs. 

In a little while she came out. 

“Frank, you and Willy go and tell Balia to come to 
the chamber door. He may be out in the stable.” 

They dashed out, proud to bear so important a mes¬ 
sage. They could not find him, but an hour later they 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


58 

heard him, coming from the stable. He at once went into 
the house. They rushed into the chamber, where they 
found the door of the closet open. 

“Balia, come in here, ,, called their mother from within. 
“Have you got them safe?” she asked. 

“Yes’m; jes , as safe as they kin be. I want to be ’bout 
here when they come, or I’d go down an’ stay whar 
they is.” 

“What is it?” asked the boys. 

“Where is the best place to put that?” she said, point¬ 
ing to a large, strong box in which, they knew, the finest 
silver was kept; indeed, all excepting what was used every 
day on the table. 

“Well, I declar’, Mistis, that’s hard to tell,” said tfie 
old driver, “without it’s in the stable.” 

“They may burn that down.” 

“That’s so; you might bury it under the floor of the 
smoke-house?” 

“I have heard that they always look for silver there,” 
said the boys’ mother. “How would it do to bury it in the 
garden?” 

“That’s the very place I was gwine name,” said Balia, 
with flattering approval. “They can’t burn that down, 
and if they gwine dig for it then they’ll have to dig a long 
time before they git over that big garden.” He stooped 
and lifted up one end of the box to test its weight. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


59 

“I thought of the other end of the flower-bed, between 
the big rose-bush and the lilac.” 

“That’s the very place I had in my mind,” declared the 
old man. “They won’ never fine it dyah!” 

“We know a good place,” said the boys both together; 
“it’s a heap better than that. It’s where we bury our 
treasures when we play 'Black-beard the Pirate.’ ” 

“Very well,” said their mother; “I don’t care to know 
where it is until after to-morrow,, anyhow. I know I can 
trust you,” she added, addressing Balia. 

“Yes’m, you know dat,” said he, simply. “I’ll jes’ go 
an’ git my hoe.” 

“The garden hasn’t got a roof to it, has it, Unc’ Balia?” 
asked Willy, quietly. 

“Go ’way from here, boy,” said the old man,, making 
a sweep at him with his hand. “That boy ain’ never done 
talkin’ ’bout that thing yit,” he added, with a pleased 
laugh, to his mistress. 

“And you ain’t ever given me all those chickens either,” 
responded Willy, forgetting his grammar. 

“Oh, well, I’m gwi’ do it; ain’t you hear me say I’m 
gwine do it?” he laughed as he went out. 

The boys were too excited to get sleepy before the 
silver was hidden. Their mother told them they might go 
down into the garden and help Balia, on condition that 
they would not talk. 


6o 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


That’s the way we always do when we bury the 
treasure. Ain’t it,, Willy?” asked Frank. 

“If a man speaks, it’s death!” declared Willy, slapping 
his hand on his side as if to draw a sword, striking a 
theatrical attitude and speaking in a deep voice. 

“Give the ‘galleon’ to us,” said Frank. 

“No; be off with you,” said their mother. 

“That ain’t the way,” said Frank. “A pirate never 
digs the hole until he has his treasure at hand. To do so 
would prove him but a novice; wouldn’t it, Willy?” 

“Well, I leave it all to you, my little Buccaneers,” said 
their mother, laughing. “I’ll take care of the spoons and 
forks we use every day. I’ll just hide them away in a hole 
somewhere.” 

The boys started off after Balia with a shout, but 
remembered their errand and suddenly hushed down to a 
little squeal of delight at being actually engaged in burying 
treasure—real silver. It seemed too good to be true, and 
withal there was a real excitement about it, for how could 
they know but that some one might watch them from 
some hiding-place, or might even fire into them as they 
worked ? 

They met the old fellow as he was coming from the 
carriage-house with a hoe and a spade in his hands. He 
was on his way to the garden in a very straightforward 
manner, but the boys made him understand that to bury 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 61 

treasure it was necessary to be particularly secret, and 
after some little grumbling, Balia humored them. 

The difficulty of getting the box of silver out of the 
house secretly, whilst all the family were up, and the 
servants were moving about,, was so great that this part 
of the affair had to be carried on in a manner different 
from, the usual programme of pirates of the first water. 
Even the boys had to admit this; and they yielded to old 
Balia’s advice on this point, but made up for it by addi¬ 
tional formality, ceremony, and secrecy in pointing out 
the spot where the box was to be hid. 

Old Balia was quite accustomed to their games and 
fun—their “pranks,” as he called them. He accordingly 
yielded willingly when they marched him to a point at 
the lower end of the yard, on the opposite side from the 
garden, and left him. But he was inclined to give trouble 
when they both reappeared with a gun, and in a whisper 
announced that they must march first up the ditch which 
ran by the spring around the foot of the garden. 

“Look here, boys; I ain’ got time to fool with you chil- 
lern,” said the old man. “Ain’t you hear your ma tell 
me she ’pend on me to bury that silver what yo’ gran’ma 
and gran’pa used to eat off o’—an’ don’ wan’ nobody to 
know nothin’ ’bout it? An’ y’ all cornin’ here with guns, 
like you huntin’ squ’rr’ls, an’ now talkin’ ’bout wadin’ in 
the ditch!” 


62 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

“But, Unc’ Balia, that’s the way all buccaneers do,” 
protested Frank. 

“Yes, buccaneers always go by water,” said Willy. 

“And we can stoop in the ditch and come in at the far 
end of the garden, so nobody can see us,” added Frank. 

“Bookanear or bookafar,—Fs gwine in dat garden and 
dig a hole wid my hoe, an’ I is too ole to be wadin’ in a 
ditch like chillern. I got the misery in my knee now, so 
bad I’se sca’cely able to stand. I don’t know huccome 
y’ all ain’t satisfied with the place you’ ma an’ I done pick, 
anyways.” 

This was too serious a mutiny for the boys. So it 
was finally greed that one gun should be returned to the 
office, and that they should enter by the gate, after which 
Balia was to go with the boys by the way they should show 
him, and see the spot they thought of. 

They took him down through the weeds around the 
garden, crouching under the rose-bushes, and at last 
stopped at a spot under the slope, completely surrounded 
by shrubbery. 

“Here is the spot,,” said Frank in a whisper, pointing 
under one of the bushes. 

“It’s in a line with the longest limb of the big oak-tree 
by the gate,” added Willy, “and when this locust bush and 
that cedar grow to be big trees, it will be just half-way 
between them.” 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


6 3 

As this seemed to Balia a very good place, he set to 
work at once to dig, the two boys helping him as well as 
they could. It took a great deal longer to dig the hole in 
the dark than they had expected, and when they got back 
to the house everything was quiet. 

The boys had their hats pulled over their eyes, and 
had turned their jackets inside out to disguise themselves. 

“It's a first-rate place! Ain't it, Unc' Balia?" they 
said, as they entered the chamber where their mother and 
aunt were waiting for them. 

“Do you think it will do,, Balia?" their mother asked. 

“Oh, yes, madam; it's far enough, an' they got mighty 
comical ways to get dyah, wadin' in ditch an' things—it 
will do. I ain' sho’ I kin fin' it ag’in myself." He was 
not particularly enthusiastic. Now, however, he shoul¬ 
dered the box, with a grunt at its weight, and the party 
went slowly out through the back door into the dark. The 
glow of the burning depot was still visible in the west. 

Then it was decided that Willy should go before— 
he said to “reconnoitre," Balia said “to open the gate and 
lead the way,"—and that Frank should bring up the rear. 

They trudged slowly on through the darkness,, Frank 
and Willy watching on every side, old Balia stooping 
under the weight of the big box. 

After they were some distance in the garden they 
heard, or thought they heard, a sound back at the gate, 


64 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


but decided that it was nothing but the latch clicking; 
and they went on down to their hiding place. 

In a little while the black box was well settled in the 
hole, and the dirt was thrown upon it. The replaced 
earth made something of a mound, which was unfortu¬ 
nate. They had not thought of this; but they covered it 
with leaves, and agreed that it was so well hidden, the 
Yankees would never dream of looking there. 

“Unc’ Balia, where are your horses ?” asked one of 
the boys. 

“That’s for me to know, an’ them to find out what 
kin,,” replied the old fellow with a chuckle of satisfaction. 

The whole party crept back out of the garden, and 
the boys were soon dreaming of buccaneers and pirates. 


CHAPTER IX. 


T HE boys were not sure that they had even fallen 
asleep when they heard Lucy Ann call, outside. 
They turned over to take another nap. She was 
coming up to the door. No, for it was a man’s step, it 
must be Uncle Balia’s; they heard horses trampling and 
people talking. In a second the door was flung open, 
and a man strode into the room followed by one, two, a 
half-dozen others, all white and all in uniform. They 
were Yankees. The boys were too frightened to speak. 
They thought they were arrested for hiding the silver. 

“Get up, you lazy little rebels,” cried one of the in¬ 
truders, not unpleasantly. As the boys were not very 
quick in obeying, being really too frightened to do more 
than sit up in bed, the man caught the mattress by the 
end, and lifting it with a jerk emptied them and all the 
bedclothes out into the middle of the floor in a heap. At 
this all the other men laughed. A minute more and he 
had drawn his sword. The boys expected no less than to 
be immediately killed. They were almost paralyzed. But 
instead of plunging his sword into them, the man began 

to stick it into the mattresses and to rip them up; while 

65 


66 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


others pulled open the drawers of the bureau and pitched 
the things on the floor. 

The boys felt themselves to be in a very exposed and 
defenceless condition; and Willy, who had become tan¬ 
gled in the bedclothes, and had been a little hurt in falling, 
now that the strain was somewhat over, began to cry. 

In a minute a shadow darkened the doorway and their 
mother stood in the room. 

-“Leave the room instantly!” she cried. “Aren’t you 
ashamed to frighten children!” 

“We haven’t hurt the brats,” said the man with the 
sword good-naturedly. 

“Well, you terrify them to death. It’s just as bad. 
Give me those clothes!” and she sprang forward and 
snatched the boys’ clothes from the hands of a man who 
had taken them up. She flung the suits to the boys,, who 
lost no time in slipping into them. 

They had at once recovered their courage in the pres¬ 
ence of their mother. She seemed to them, as she braved 
the intruders, the grandest person they had ever seen. 
Her face was white, but her eyes were like coals of fire. 
They were very glad she had never looked or talked so to 
them. 

When they got outdoors the yard was full of soldiers. 
They were upon the porches, in the entry, and in the 
house. The smoke-house was open and so were the doors 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 67 

of all the other outhouses, and now and then a man passed, 
carrying some article which the boys recognized. 

In a little while the soldiers had taken everything they 
could carry conveniently, and even things which must 
have caused them some inconvenience. They had secured 
all the bacon that had been left in the smoke-house, as 
well as all other eatables they could find. It was a queer 
sight, to see the fellows sitting on their horses with a 
ham or a pair of fowls tied to one side of the saddle and 
an engraving or a package of books, or some ornament, 
to the other. 

A new party of men had by this time come up from 
the direction of the stables. 

“Old man, come here!” called some of them to Balia, 
who was standing near expostulating with the men who 
were about the fire. 

“Who?—me?” asked Balia. ' 

“B’ain’t you the carriage driver?” 

“Ain’t I the keridge driver?” 

“Yes, you; we know you are, so you need not be lying 
about it.” 

“Hi! yes; I the keridge driver. Who say I ain’t?” 

“Well, where have you hid those horses? Come, we 
want to know, quick,” said the fellow roughly, taking out 
his pistol in a threatening way. 

The old man’s eyes grew wide. “Hi! befo’ de Lord! 


68 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


Marster, how I know anything of the horses ef they ain’t 
in the stable,,—there’s where we keep horses!” 

“Here, you come with us. We won’t have no foolin’ 
’bout this,” said his questioner, seizing him by the shoul¬ 
der and jerking him angrily around. “If you don’t show 
us pretty quick where those horses are, we’ll put a bullet 
or two into you. March off there!” 

He was backed by a half-a-dozen more, but the pistol, 
which was at old Balia’s head, was his most efficient ally. 

“Hi! Marster, don’t pint dat thing at me that way. 
I ain’t ready to die yit—an’ I ain’ like dem things, no¬ 
ways,” protested Balia. 

There is no telling how much further his courage 
could have withstood their threats,, for the boys’ mother 
made her appearance. She was about to bid Balia show 
where the horses were, when a party rode into the yard 
leading them. 

“Hi! there are Bill and John, now,” exclaimed the 
boys, recognizing the black carriage-horses which were 
being led along. 

“Well, ef dee ain’t got ’em, sho’ ’nough!” exclaimed 
the old driver, forgetting his fear of the cocked pistols. 

“Gentlemen, marsters,, don’t teck my horses, ef you 
please ” he pleaded, pushing through the group that sur¬ 
rounded him, and approaching the man who led the horses. 

They only laughed at him. 



gentlemen, marsters, don’t teck my horses, ef you please,” said uncle balla. 

















































i 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 71 

Both the boys ran to their mother, and flinging their 
arms about her, burst out crying. 

In a few minutes the men started off, riding across 
the fields; and in a little while not a soldier was in sight. 

“I wish Marse William could see you ridin’ 'cross them 
fields," said Balia, looking after the retiring troop in fu¬ 
tile indignation. 

Investigation revealed the fact that every horse and 
mule on the plantation had been carried off, except only 
two or three old mules, which were evidently considered 
not worth taking. 


CHAPTER X. 


A FTER this, times were very hard on the plantation. 
But the boys’ mother struggled to provide as best 
‘sshe could for the family and hands. She used to 
ride all over the county to secure the supplies which were 
necessary for their support; one of the boys usually being 
her escort and riding behind her on one of the old mules 
that the raiders had left. In this way the boys became 
acquainted with the roads of the county and even with all 
the bridle-paths in the neighborhood of their home. Many 
of these were dim enough too,, running through stretches 
of pine forest, across old fields which were little better 
than jungle, along gullies, up ditches, and through woods 
mile after mile. They were generally useful only to a 
race, such as the negroes, which had an instinct for di¬ 
rection like that shown by some animals but the boys 
learned to follow them unerringly, and soon became as 
skilful in “keepin’ de parf” as any night-walker on the 
plantation. 

As the year passed the times grew harder and harder, 
and the expeditions made by the boys’ mother became 
longer and longer, and more and more frequent. 


72 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


73 

The meat gave out, and,, worst of all, they had no hogs 
left for next year. The plantation usually subsisted on 
bacon; but now there was not a pig left on the place— 
unless the old wild sow in the big woods (who had refused 
to be “driven up” the fall before) still survived, which 
was doubtful; fgr the most diligent search was made for 
her without success, and it was conceded that even she 
had fallen prey to the deserters. Nothing was heard of 
her for months. 

One day, in the autumn, the boys were out hunting in 
the big woods, in the most distant and wildest part, where 
they sloped down toward a little marshy branch that ran 
into the river a mile or two away. 

It was a very dry spell and squirrels were hard to find, 
owing, the boys agreed, to the noise made in tramping 
through the dry leaves. Finally, they decided to station 
themselves each at the foot of a hickory and wait for the 
squirrels. They found two large hickory trees not too 
far apart, and took their positions each on the ground, 
with his back to a tree. 

It was very dull, waiting, and a half-whispered col¬ 
loquy was passing between them as to the advisability of 
giving it up, when a faint “cranch, cranch, cranch,” 
sounded in the dry leaves. At first the boys thought it 
was a squirrel, and both of them grasped their guns. 
Then the sound came again, but this time there appeared 


74 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

to be„ not one, but a number of animals, rustling slowly 
along. 

“What is it?” asked Frank of Willy, whose tree was 
a little nearer the direction from which the sound came. 

“ ’Tain’t anything but some cows or sheep, I believe,” 
said Willy, in a disappointed tone. The look of interest 
died out of Frank’s face, but he still kept his eyes in the 
direction of the sound, which was now very distinct. The 
underbrush, however, was too thick for them to see any¬ 
thing. At length Willy rose and pushed his way rapidly 
through the bushes toward the animals. There was a 
sudden “oof, oof,” and Frank heard them rushing back 
down through the woods toward the marsh. 

“Somebody’s hogs,” he muttered, in disgust. 

“Frank! Frank!” called Willy, in a most excited tone. 

“What?” 

“It’s the old spotted sow, and she’s got a lot of pigs 
with her—great big shoats, nearly grown!” 

Frank sprang up and ran through the bushes. 

“At least six of ’em !” 

“Let’s follow ’em!” 

“All right.” 

The boys, stooping their heads, struck out through 
the bushes in the direction from which the yet retreating 
animals could still be heard. 

“Let’s shoot ’em,” 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


75 


“All right.” 

On they kept as hard as they could. What great news 
it was! What royal game! 

“It’s like hunting wild boars, isn’t it?” shouted 
Willy, joyfully. 

They followed the track left by the animals in the 
leaves kicked up in their mad flight. It led down over 
the hill, through the thicket, and came to an end at the 
marsh which marked the beginning of the swamp. Be¬ 
yond that it could not be traced; but it was evident that 
the wild hogs had taken refuge in the impenetrable re¬ 
cesses of the marsh which was their home. 


f 


CHAPTER XI. 


A FTER circling the edge of the swamp for some 
time the boys, as it was now growing late., turned 
^toward home. They were full of their valuable 
discovery, and laid all sorts of plans for the capture of 
the hogs. They would not tell even their mother, as they 
wished to surprise her. They were, of course, familiar 
with all the modes of trapping game, as described in the 
story books, and they discussed them all. The easiest way 
to get the hogs was to shoot them, and this would be the 
most “fun”; but it would never do, for the meat would 
spoil. When they reached home they hunted up Uncle 
Balia and told him about their discovery. He was very 
much inclined to laugh at them. The hogs they had seen 
were nothing, he told them,, but some of the neighbors’ 
hogs which had wandered into the woods. 

When the boys went to bed they talked it over once 
more, and determined that next day they would thor¬ 
oughly explore the woods and the swamp also, as far as 
they could. 

The following afternoon, therefore, they set out, and 
made immediately for that part of the woods where they 

76 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


77 

had seen and heard the hogs the day before. One of 
them carried a gun and the other a long jumping-pole. 
After finding the trail they followed it straight down to 
the swamp. 

Rolling their trousers up above their knees, they waded 
boldly in, selecting an opening between the bushes which 
looked like a hog-path. They proceeded slowly, for the 
briers were so thick in many places that they could hardly 
make any progress at all when they neared the branch. 
So they turned and worked their way painfully down 
the stream. At last, however,, they reached a place where 
the brambles and bushes seemed to form a perfect wall 
before them. It was impossible to get through. 

“Let’s go home,” said Willy. “ ’Tain’t any use to 
try to get through there. My legs are scratched all to 
pieces now.” 

“Let’s try and get out here,” said Frank, and he turned 
from the wall of brambles. They crept along, springing 
from hummock to hummock. Presently they came to a 
spot where the oozy mud extended at least eight or ten 
feet before the next tuft of grass. 

“How am I to get the gun across?” asked Willy, dole¬ 
fully. 

“That’s a fact! It’s too far to throw it, even with 
the caps ofif.” 

At length they concluded to go back for a piece of log 


78 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

they had seen, and to throw this down so as to lessen the 
distance. 

They pulled the log out of the sand, carried it to the 
muddy spot, and threw it into the mud where they wanted 
it. 

Frank stuck his pole down and felt until he had what 
he thought a secure hold on it,, fixed his eye on the tuft 
of grass beyond, and sprang into air. 

As he jumped the pole slipped from its insecure sup¬ 
port into the miry mud, and Frank, instead of landing 
on the hummock for which he had aimed, lost his direc¬ 
tion, and soused flat on his side with a loud “spa-lash,,” 
in the water and mud three feet to the left. 

He was a queer object as he staggered to his feet in 
the quagmire; but at the instant a loud “oof, oof,” came 
from the thicket, not a dozen yards away, and the whole 
herd of hogs,, roused, by his fall, from slumber in their 
muddy lair, dashed away through the swamp with “oofs” 
of fear. 

“There they go, there they go!” shouted both boys, 
eagerly,—Willy, in his excitement, splashing across the 
perilous-looking quagmire, and finding it not so deep as 
it had looked. 

“There's where they go in and out,” exclaimed Frank, 
pointing to a low round opening, not more than eighteen 
inches high,, a little further beyond them, which formed 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


79 

an arch in the almost solid wall of brambles surrounding 
the place. 

As it was now late they returned home, resolving to 
wait until the next afternoon before taking any further 
steps. There was not a pound of bacon to be obtained 
anywhere in the country for love or money, and the flock 
of sheep was almost gone. 

Their mother's anxiety as to means for keeping her 
dependents from starving was so great that the boys were 
on the point of telling her what they knew; and when they 
heard her wishing she had a few hogs to fatten, they 
could scarcely keep from letting her know their plans. 
At last they had to jump up, and run out of the room. 

Next day the boys each hunted up a pair of old boots 
which they had used the winter before. The leather was 
so dry and worn that the boots hurt their growing feet 
cruelly, but they brought the boots along to put on when 
they reached the swamp. This time, each took a gun, 
and they also carried an axe, for now they had deter¬ 
mined on a plan for capturing the hogs. 

“I wish we had let Peter and Cole come/' said Willy, 
dolefully, sitting on the butt end of a log they had cut, 
and wiping his face on his sleeve. 

“Or had asked Uncle Balia to help us,” added Frank. 

“They'd be certain to tell all about it.” 

“Yes; so they would.” 


8o 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


They settled down in silence, and panted. 

“I tell you what we ought to do! Bait the hog-path, 
as you would for fish.” This was the suggestion of the 
angler, Frank. 

“With what?” 

“Acorns.” 

The acorns were tolerably plentiful around the roots 
of the big oaks, so the boys set to work to pick them up. 
It was an easier job than cutting the log, and it was not 
long before each had his hat full. 

As they started down to the swamp, Frank exclaimed, 
suddenly, “Look there, Willy!” 

Willy looked, and not fifty yards away, with their ends 
resting on old stumps, were three or four “hacks,” or 
piles of rails, which had been mauled the season before and 
left there, probably having been forgotten or overlooked. 

Willy gave a hurrah, while bending under the weight 
of a large rail. 

At the 9pot where the hog-path came out of the thicket 
they commenced to build their trap. 

First they laid a floor of rails; then they built a pen, 
five or six rails high, which they strengthened with “out¬ 
riders.” When the pen was finished, they pried up the 
side nearest the thicket, from, the bottom rail, about a 
foot; that is„ high enough for the animals to enter. This 
they did by means of two rails, using one as a fulcrum 


/ 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


81 


and one as a lever, having shortened them enough to 
enable the work to be done from inside the pen. 

The lever they pulled down at the farther end until 
it touched the bottom of the trap, and fastened it by an¬ 
other rail, a thin one, run at right-angles to the lever, and 
across the pen. This would slip easily when pushed away 
from the gap, and needed to be moved only about an inch 
to slip from the end of the lever and release it; the weight 
of the pen would then close the gap. Behind this rail the 
acorns were to be thrown; and the hogs, in trying to get 
the bait, would push the rail, free the lever or trigger, 
and the gap would be closed by the fall of the pen when 
the lever was released. 

It was nearly night when the boys finished. 

They scattered a portion of the acorns for bait along 
the path and up into the pen, to toll the hogs in. The 
rest they strewed inside the pen, beyond their sliding rail. 

They could scarcely tear themselves away from the 
pen; but it was so late they had to hurry home. 

Next day was Sunday. But Monday morning, by day¬ 
light, they were up and went out with their guns, ap¬ 
parently to hunt squirrels. They went, however, straight 
to their trap. As they approached they thought they 
heard the hogs grunting in the pen. Willy was sure of 
it; and they ran as hard as they could. But there were 
no hogs there. After going every morning and evening 


82 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

for two weeks, there never had been even an acorn missed,, 
so they stopped their visits. 

Peter and Cole found out about the pen, and then the 
servants learned of it, and the boys were joked and 
laughed at unmercifully. 

“I believe them boys is distracted,” said old Balia, in 
the kitchen; “settin’ a pen in them woods for to ketch hogs, 
—with the gap open! Think hogs goin’ stay in pen with 
gap open—ef any wuz dyah to went in!” 

“Well, you come out and help us hunt for them,,” said 
the boys to the old driver. 

“Go ’way, boy, I ain’ got time foolin’ wid you chillern, 
buildin’ pen in swamp. There ain’t no hogs in them woods, 
onless they got in dyah sence las’ fall.” 

“You saw ’em, didn’t you, Willy?” declared Frank. 

“Yes, I did.” 

“Go ’way. Don’t you know, ef that old sow had been 
in them woods,, the boys would have got her up las’ fall 
—an’ ef they hadn’t, she’d come up long befo’ this?” 

“Mister Hall ketch you boys puttin’ his hogs up in 
pen, he’ll teck you up,” said Lucy Ann,, in her usual teas¬ 
ing way. 

This was too much for the boys to stand after all they 
had done. Uncle Balia must be right. They would have 
to admit it. The hogs must have belonged to some one 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 83 

else. And their mother was in such desperate straits 
about meat! 

Lucy Ann’s last shot, about catching Mr. Hall’s hogs, 
took effect; and the boys agreed that they would go out 
some afternoon and pull the pen down. 

The next afternoon they took their guns, and started 
out on a squirrel-hunt. 

They did not have much luck, however. 

“Let’s go by there, and pull the old pen down,” said 
Frank, as they started homeward from the far side of the 
woods. 

“It’s out of the way,—let the old thing rip.” 

“We’d better pull it down. If a hog were to be caught 
there,, it wouldn’t do.” 

“I wish he would!—but there ain’t any hogs going to 
get caught,” growled Willy. 

“He might starve to death.” 

This suggestion persuaded Willy, who could not bear 
to have anything suffer. 

So they sauntered down toward the swamp. 

As they approached it, a squirrel ran up a tree, and 
both boys were after it in a second. They were standing, 
one on each side of the tree, gazing up, trying to get a 
sight of the little animal among the gray branches, when 
a sound came to the ears of both of them at the same mo¬ 
ment. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


84 

“What’s that?” both asked together. 

“It's hogs, grunting.” 

“No, they are fighting. They are in the swamp. 
Let’s run,,” said Willy. 

“No; we’ll scare them away. They may be near the 
trap,” was Frank’s prudent suggestion. “Let’s creep up.” 

“I hear young pigs squealing. Do you think they 
are ours?” 

The squirrel was left, flattened out and trembling on 
top of a large limb, and the boys stole down the hill toward 
the pen. The hogs were not in sight, though they could 
be heard grunting and scuffling. They crept closer. 
Willy crawled through a thick clump of bushes, and sprang 
to his feet with a shout. “We’ve got ’em! We’ve got 
’em!” he cried, running toward the pen, followed by 
Frank. 

Sure enough! There they were, fast in the pen, fight¬ 
ing and snorting to get out, and tearing around with the 
bristles high on their round backs., the old sow and seven 
large young hogs; while a litter of eight little pigs, as the 
boys ran up, squeezed through the rails, and, squealing, 
dashed away into the grass. 

The hogs were almost frantic at the sight of the boys, 
and rushed madly at the sides of the pen; but the boys 
had made it too strong to be broken. 

After gazing at their capture awhile, and piling a few 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 85 

more outriders on the corners of the pen to make it more 
secure, the two trappers rushed home. They dashed 
breathless and panting into their mother's room, shout¬ 
ing, “We've got ’em!—we've got 'em!" and,, seizing her, 
began to dance up and down with her. 

In a little while the whole plantation was aware of 
the capture, and old Balia was sent out with them to look 
at the hogs to make sure they did not belong to some one 
else,—as he insisted they did. The boys went with him. 
It was quite dark when he returned, but as he came in 
the proof of the boys' success was written on his face. 
He was in a broad grin. To his mistress's inquiry he re¬ 
plied, “Yes’m, they's got 'em, sho' 'nough. They's the 
beatenes' boys!" 

For some time afterward he would every now and then 
break into a chuckle of amused content and exclaim, 
“Them's right smart chillern." And at Christmas, when 
the hogs were killed,, this was the opinion of the whole 
plantation. 


CHAPTER XII. 


r~|p\HE gibes of Lucy Ann, and the occasional little 
I thrusts of Hugh about the “deserter business,” 
continued and kept the boys stirred up. At 
length they could stand it no longer. It was decided be¬ 
tween them that they must retrieve their reputations by 
capturing a real deserter and turning him over to the con¬ 
script-officer whose office was at the depot. 

Accordingly, one Saturday they started out on an ex¬ 
pedition, the object of which was to capture a deserter 
though they should die in the attempt. 

The conscript-guard had been unusually active lately, 
and it was said that several deserters had been caught. 

The boys turned in at their old road, and made their 
way into Holetown. Their guns were loaded with large 
slugs, and they felt the ardor of battle thrill them as they 

* 

r 

marched along down the narrow roadway. They were 
trudging on when they were hailed by name from behind. 
Turning, they saw their friend Tim Mills, coming along 
at the same slouching gait in which he always walked. His 
old single-barrel gun was thrown across his arm, and he 
looked a litttle rustier than on the day he had shared their 

86 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 87 

lunch. The boys held a little whispered conversation,, and 
decided on a treaty of friendship. 

“Good-mommy’ he said, on coming up to them. 
“How’s your ma?” 

“Good-morning. She’s right well.” 

“What y’ all doin’? Huntin’ d’serters agin?” He 
asked. 

“Yes. Come on and help us catch them.” 

“No; I can’t do that—exactly;—but I tell you what I 
can do. I can tell you whar one is!” 

The boys’ faces glowed. “All right!” 

“Let me see,” he began, reflectively, chewing a stick. 
“Does y’ all know Billy Johnson?” 

The boys did not know him. 

“You sure you don’t know him? He’s a tall, long 
fellow, ’bout forty years old, and breshes his hair mighty 
slick; got a big nose, and a gap-tooth, and a mustache. 
He lives down in the lower neighborhood.” 

Even after this description the boys failed to recog¬ 
nize him. 

“Well, he’s the feller. I can tell you right whar he 
is, this minute. He did me a mean trick, an’ I’m gwine 
to give him up. Come along.” 

“What did he do to you?” inquired the boys, as they 
followed him down the road. 

“Why—he—; but ’t’s no use to be rakin’ it up agin. 


88 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


You know he always passes hisself off as one o’ the con- 
scrip’-guards,—that’s his dodge. Like as not, that’s what 
he’s gwine try and put off on y’ all now; but don’t you let 
him fool you.” 

“We’re not going to,” said the boys. 

“He rigs hisself up in a uniform—jes’ like as not he 
stole it, too,—an’ goes roun’ foolin’ people, meckin’ out 
he’s such a soldier. If he fools with me, I’m gwine to 
finish him !” Here Tim gripped his gun fiercely. 

The boys promised not to be fooled by the wily John¬ 
son. All they asked was to have him pointed out to them. 

“Don’t you let him put up any game on you ’bout bein’ 
a conscrip’-guard hisself,,” continued their friend. 

“No, indeed we won’t. We are obliged to you for tell¬ 
ing us.” 

“He ain’t so very fur from here. He’s mighty tecken 
up with John Hall’s gal, and is try in’ to meek out like 
he’s Gen’l Lee hisself, an’ she ain’t got no mo’ sense than 
to b’lieve him,” 

“Why, we heard, Mr. Mills, she was going to marry 
you.” 

“Oh, no, I ain’t a good enough soldier for her; she 
wants to marry Gen’l Lee” 

The boys laughed at his dry tone. 

As they walked along they consulted how the capture 
should be made. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


89 

“I tell you how to take him,” said their companion. 
“He is a monstrous coward, and all you got to do is jest 
to bring your guns down on him. I wouldn't shoot him 
—’nless he tried to run; but if he did that, when he got 
a little distance I’d pepper him about his legs. Make him 
give up his sword and pistol and don't let him ride; 'cause 
if you do, he'll git away. Make him walk—the rascal!” 

The boys promised to carry out these kindly sugges¬ 
tions. 

They soon came in sight of the little house where 
Mills said the deserter was. A soldier's horse was stand¬ 
ing tied at the gate, with a sword hung from the saddle. 
The owner, in full uniform, was sitting on the porch. 

“I can’t go any furder,” whispered their friend; ‘‘but 
that's him—that’s ‘Gen’l Lee'—the triflin' scoundrel!— 
loafin' 'roun' here 'sted o' goin' in the army! I b'lieve y' 
all is 'fraid to take him,” eyeing the boys suspiciously. 

“No, we ain’t; you’ll see,” said both boys, fired at the 
doubt. 

“All right; I'm goin' to wait right here and watch 
you. Go ahead.” 

The boys looked at the guns to see if they were all 
right, and marched up the road keeping their eyes on the 
enemy. It was agreed that Frank was to do the talking 
and give the orders. 

They said not a word until they reached the gate. 


90 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


They could see a young woman moving about in the house,, 
setting a table. At the gate they stopped, so as to pre¬ 
vent the man from getting to his horse. 

The soldier eyed them curiously. “I wonder whose 
boys they is ?” he said to himself. “They’s certainly actin’ 
comical! Playin’ soldiers, I reckon.” 

“Cock your gun—easy,” said Frank, in a low tone, 
suiting his own action to the word. 

Willy obeyed. 

“Come out here, if you please,” Frank called to the 
man. He could not keep his voice from shaking a little, 
but the man rose and lounged out toward them. His 
prompt compliance reassured them. 

They stood, gripping their guns and watching him as 
he advanced. 

“Come outside the gate!” He did as Frank said. 

“What do you want?” he asked impatiently. 

“You are our prisoner,” said Frank,, sternly, dropping 
down his gun with the muzzle toward the captive, and 
giving a glance at Willy to see that he was supported. 

“Your what? What do you mean?” 

“We arrest you as a deserter.” 

How proud Willy was of Frank! 

“Go ’way from here; I ain’t no deserter. I’m a-huntin’ 
for deserters, myself,” the man replied, laughing. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


9i 

Frank smiled at Willy with a nod, as much as to say, 
“You see,—just what Tim told us!” 

“Ain’t your name Mr. Billy Johnson?” 

“Yes; that’s my name.” 

“You are the man we’re looking for. March down 
that road. But don’t run,—if you do, we’ll shoot you!” 

As the boys seemed perfectly serious and the muzzles 
of both guns were pointing directly at him,, the man began 
to think that they were in earnest. But he could hardly 
credit his senses. A suspicion flashed into his mind. 

“Look here, boys,” he said, rather angrily, “I don’t 
want any of your foolin’ with me. I’m too old to play 
with children. If you all don’t go ’long home and stop 
giving me impudence, I’ll slap you over!” He started 
angrily toward Frank. As he did so, Frank brought the 
gun to his shoulder. 

“Stand back!” he said, looking along the barrel, right 
into the man’s eyes. “If you move a step, I’ll blow your 
head off!” 

The soldier’s jaw fell. He stopped and threw up 
his arm before his eyes. 

“Hold on!” he called, “don’t shoot! Boys,, ain’t you 
got better sense ’n that?” 

“March on down that road. Willy, you get the 
horse,” said Frank, decidedly. 

The soldier glanced over toward the house. The voice 


92 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

of the young woman was heard singing a war song in a 
high key. 

“Ef Millindy sees me, I’m a goner/’ he reflected. “J es> 
come down the road a little piece, will you?” he asked, 
persuasively. 

“No talking,—march!” ordered Frank. 

He looked at each of the boys; the guns still kept their 
perilous direction. The boys’ eyes looked fiery to his 
surprised senses. 

“Who is y’ all?” he asked. 

“We are two little Confederates! That’s who we 
are,” said Willy. 

“Is any of your parents ever—ever been in a asylum?” 
he asked,, as calmly as he could. 

“That’s none of your business,” said Captain Frank. 
“March on!” 

The man cast a despairing glance toward the house, 
where “The years” were “creeping slowly by, Lorena,” 
in a very high pitch,—and then moved on. 

“I hope she ain’t seen nothin’,” he thought. “If I 
jest can git them guns away from ’em-” 

Frank followed close behind him with his old gun 
held ready for need, and Willy untied the horse and led 
it. The bushes concealed them from the dwelling. 

As soon as they were well out of sight of the house, 
Frank gave the order: 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


93 


“Halt!” They all halted. 

“Willy, tie the horse.” It was done. 

“I wonder if those boys is thinkin’ ’bout shootin’ me?” 
thought the soldier, turning and putting his hand on his 
pistol. 

As he did so,, Frank’s gun came to his shoulder. 

“Throw up your hands or you are a dead man.” The 
hands went up. 

“Willy, keep your gun on him, while I search him for 
any weapons.” Willy cocked the old musket and brought 
it to bear on the prisoner. 

“Little boy, don’t handle that thing so reckless,” the 
man expostulated. “Ef that musket was to go off, it 
might kill me!” 

“No talking,” demanded Frank, going up to him. 
“Hold up your hands. Willy, shoot him if he moves.” 

Frank drew a long pistol from its holster with an air 
of business. He searched carefully, but there was no 
more. 

The fellow gritted his teeth. “If she ever hears of 
this, Tim’s got her certain,,” he groaned; “but she won’t 
never hear.” 

At a turn in the road his heart sank within him; for 
just around the curve they came upon Tim Mills sitting 
quietly on a stump. He looked at them with a quizzical 
eye, but said not a word. 


94 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


The prisoner’s face was a study when he recognized 
his rival and enemy. As Mills did not move, his courage 
returned. 

“Good mornin’, Tim,” he said, with great politeness. 

The man on the stump said nothing; he only looked on 
with complacent enjoyment. 

“Tim, is these two boys crazy?” he asked slowly. 

“They’re crazy ’bout shootin’ deserters,” replied Tim. 

“Tim, tell ’em I ain’t no deserter.” His voice was full 
of entreaty. 

“Well, if you ain’t a d’serter,, what you doin’ outn the 
army?” 

“You know--” began the fellow fiercely; but Tim 

shifted his long single-barrel lazily into his hand and 
looked the man straight in the eyes, and the prisoner 
stopped. 

“Yes, I know,” said Tim with a sudden spark in his 
eyes. “An’ you know,” he added after a pause, during 
which his face resumed its usual listless look. “An’ my 
edvice to you is to go ’long with them boys, if you don’t 
want to git three loads of slugs in you. They may put 
’em in you anyway. They’s sort of ’stracted ’bout d’sert- 
ers, and I can swear to it.” He touched his forehead ex¬ 
pressively. 

“March on!” said Frank. 




FRANK AND WILLY CAPTURE A MEMBER OF THE CONSCRIPT-GUARD 


































TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


97 

The prisoner, grinding his teeth, moved forward,, fol¬ 
lowed by his guards. 

As the enemies parted each man sent the same ugly 
look after the other. 

“It’s all over! He’s got her,” groaned Johnson. As 
they passed out of sight, Mills rose and sauntered some¬ 
what briskly (for him) in the direction of John Hall’s. 

They soon reached a little stream, not far from the 
depot where the provost-guard was stationed. On its 
banks the man made his last stand; but his obstinacy 
brought a black muzzle close to his head with a stern little 
face behind it, and he was fain to march straight through 
the water, as he was ordered. 

Just as he was emerging on the other bank, with his 
boots full of water and his trousers dripping, closely fol¬ 
lowed by Frank brandishing a pistol, a small body of sol¬ 
diers rode up. They were the conscript-guard. John¬ 
son’s look was despairing. 

“Why, Billy, what in thunder-? Thought you 

were sick in bed!” 

Another minute and the soldiers took in the situation 
by instinct—and Johnson’s rage was drowned in the uni¬ 
versal explosion of laughter. 

The boys had captured a member of the conscript- 

guard. 

In the midst of all, Frank and Willy, overwhelmed by 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


98 

their ridiculous error, took to their heels as hard as they 
could, and the last sounds that reached them were the 
roars of the soldiers as the scampering boys disappeared 
in a cloud of dust. 

Johnson went back, in a few days, to see John Hall's 
daughter; but the young lady declared she wouldn't marry 
any man who let two boys make him wade through a 
creek; and a month or two later she married Tim Mills. 

To all the gibes he heard on the subject of his capture, 
and they were many, Johnson made but one reply: 

“Them boys's had parents in a a—sylum, suret* 


t 






CHAPTER XIII. 


I T was now nearing the end of the third year of the 
war. Hugh was seventeen, and was eager to go 
into the army. His mother would have liked to keep 
him at home; but she felt that it was her duty not to with¬ 
hold anything, and Colonel Marshall offered Hugh a place 
with him. So a horse was bought, and Hugh went to 
Richmond and came back with a uniform and a sabre. 

The boys truly thought that General Lee himself was not 

*/ 

so imposing or so great a soldier as Hugh. They fol¬ 
lowed him about like two pet dogs, and when he sat down 
they stood and gazed at him adoringly. 

When Hugh rode away to the army it was harder to 
part with him than they had expected; and though he 
had left them his gun and dog, to console them during his 
absence, it was difficult to keep from crying. Everyone 
on the plantation was moved. Uncle Balia, who up to 
the last moment had been very lively attending to the 
horse, as the young soldier galloped away sank down on 
the end of the steps of the office, and, dropping his hands 
on his knees, followed Hugh with his eyes until he disap- 

99 

\ 

\. 


> > j> 


IOO 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


peared over the hill. The old driver said nothing, but 
his face expressed a great deal. 

The boys’ mother cried a great deal, but it was gener¬ 
ally when she was by herself. 

“She’s afraid Hugh’ll be kilt,” Willy said to Uncle 
Balia, in explanation of her tears,—the old servant having 
remarked that he “b’lieved she cried more when LIugh 
went away, than she did when Marse John and Marse 
William both went.” 

“Hi! warn’t she ’fred they’ll be kilt, too?” he asked 
in some scorn. 

This was beyond Willy’s logic, so he pondered over it. 

“Yes, but she’s afraid Hugh’ll be kilt, as well as 
them,” he said finally, as the best solution of the problem. 

It did not seem to wholly satisfy Uncle Balia’s mind, 
for when he moved off he said, as though talking to him¬ 
self : 

“She sutn’ey is ‘sot’ on that boy. He’ll be a gen’l 
hisself, the first thing she know.” 

There was a bond of sympathy between Uncle Balia 
and his mistress which did not exist so strongly between 
her and any of the other servants. It was due perhaps 
to the fact that he was the companion and friend of her 
boys. 

That winter the place where the army went into win¬ 
ter quarters was some distance from Oakland; but the 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


IOI 


young officers used to ride over, from time to time, two 
or three together, and stay for a day or two. 

Times were harder than they had been before, but the 
young people were as gay as ever. 

The colonel, who had been dreadfully wounded in the 
summer, had been made a brigadier-general for gallantry. 
Hugh had received a slight wound in the same action. The 
General had written to the boy’s mother about him; but 
he had not been home. The General had gone back to 
his command. He had never been to Oakland since he 
was wounded. 

One evening, the boys had just teased their Cousin 
Belle into reading them their nightly portion of “The 
Talisman,” as they sat before a bright lightwood fire,, when 
two horsemen galloped up to the gate, their horses splashed 
with mud from fetlocks to ears. In a second, Lucy Ann 
dashed headlong into the room, with her teeth gleaming: 

“Here Marse Hugh, out here!” 

There was a scamper to the door—the boys first, shout¬ 
ing at the tops of their voices, Cousin Belle next, and 
Lucy Ann close at her heels. 

“Who’s with him, Lucy Ann?” asked Miss Belle, as 
they reached the passage-way, and heard several voices 
outside. 

“The Cunel’s with ’im.” 


/ 


102 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


The young lady turned and fled up the steps as fast 
as she could. 

“You see I brought my welcome with me,” said the 
General, addressing the boy’s mother, and laying his hand 
on his young aide’s shoulder, as they stood, a little later, 
“thawing out” by the roaring log-fire in the sitting-room. 

“You always bring that; but you are doubly welcome 
for bringing this young soldier back to me,” said she, 
putting her arm affectionately around her son. 

Just then the boys came rushing in from taking the 
horses to the stable. They made a dive toward the fire 
to warm their little chapped hands. 

“I told you Hugh warn’t as tall as the General,” said 
Frank, across the hearth to Willy. 

“Who said he was ?” 

“You!” 

“I didn’t.” 

“You did.” 

They were a contradictory pair of youngsters,, and 
their voices, pitched in a youthful treble, were apt in 
discussion to strike a somewhat higher key; but it did not 
follow that they were in an ill-humor merely because they 
contradicted each other. 

“What did you say, if you didn’t say that?” insisted 
Frank. 

“I said he looked as if he thought himself as tall as the 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


103 


General,” declared Willy, defiantly, oblivious in his ex¬ 
citement of the eldest brother’s presence. There was a 
general laugh at Hugh’s confusion; but Hugh had carried 
an order across a field under a hot fire, and had brought 
a regiment up in the nick of time, riding by its colonel’s 
side in a charge which had changed the issue of the fight, 
and had a sabre wound in the arm to show for it. He 
could therefore afford to pass over such an accusation 
with a little tweak of Willy’s ear. 

“Where’s Cousin Belle?” asked Frank. 

“I s’peck she’s putting on her fine clothes for the Gen¬ 
eral to see. Didn’t she run when she heard he was here!” 

“Willy!” said his mother, reprovingly. 

“Well,, she did, Ma.” 

His mother shook her head at him; but the General 
put his hand on the boy, and drew him closer. 

“You say she ran?” he asked, with a pleasant light in 
his eyes. 

“Yes, sirree; she did that” 

Just then the door opened, and their Cousin Belle en¬ 
tered the room. She looked perfectly beautiful. The 
greetings were very cordial—to Hugh especially. She 
threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him. 

“You young hero!” she cried. “Oh, Hugh, I am so 
proud of you!”—kissing him again, and laughing at him, 
with her face glowing, and her big brown eyes full of 


104 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


light. “Where were you wounded ? Oh! I was so fright¬ 
ened when I heard about it!” 

“Where was it? Show it to us,, Hugh; please do,” 
exclaimed both boys at once, jumping around him, and 
pulling at his arm. 

“Oh, Hugh, is it still very painful?” asked his cousin, 
her pretty face filled with sudden sympathy. 

“Oh! no, it was nothing—nothing but a scratch,” said 
Hugh, shaking the boys off, his expression being divided 
between feigned indifference and sheepishness, at this 
praise in the presence of his chief. 

“No such thing, Miss Belle,” put in the General, glad 
of the chance to secure her commendation. “It might 
have been very serious, and it was a splendid ride he 
made.” 

“Were you not ashamed of yourself to send him into 
such danger?” she said, turning on him suddenly. “Why 
did you not go yourself?” 

The young man laughed. Her beauty entranced him. 
He had scars enough to justify him in keeping silence 
under her pretended reproach. 

“Well, you see, I couldn’t leave the place where I was. 
I had to send some one, and I knew Hugh would do it. 
He led the regiment after the colonel and major fell— 
and he did it splendidly, too.” 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


105 

There was a chorus from the young lady and the boys 
together. 

“Oh, Hugh, you hear what he says!” exclaimed the 
former, turning to her cousin. “Oh, I am so glad that 
he thinks so!” Then, recollecting that she was paying 
him the highest compliment, she suddenly began to blush, 
and turned once more to him. “Well, you talk as if you 
were surprised. Did you expect anything else?” 

There was a fine scorn in her voice, if it had been 
real. 

“Certainly not; you are all too clever at making an 
attack,” he said coolly, looking her in the eyes. “But I 
have heard even of your running away,” he added, with 
a twinkle in his eyes. 

“When?” she asked quickly, with a little guilty color 
deepening in her face as she glanced at the boys. “I 
never did.” 

“Oh, she did!” exclaimed both boys in a breath, break¬ 
ing in, now that the conversation was within their range. 
“You ought to have seen her. She just flew!” exclaimed 
Frank. 

The girl made a rush at the offender to stop him. 

“He doesn’t know what he is talking about,” she said, 
roguishly, over her shoulder. 

“Yes, he does,” called the other. “She was standing 
at the foot of the steps when you all came, and—00— 


106 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

oo—oo—” the rest was lost as his cousin placed her hand 
close over his mouth. 

“Here! here! run away! You are too dangerous. 
They don’t know what they are talking about/’ she said, 
throwing a glance toward the young officer, who was 
keenly enjoying her confusion. Her hand slipped from 
Willy’s mouth and he went on. “And when she heard 
it was you, she just clapped her hands and ran—oo—oo 
•—umm.” 

“Here, Hugh, put them out,” she said to that young 
man, who, glad to do her bidding, seized both miscreants 
by their arms and carried them out, closing the door after 
them. 

Hugh bore the boys into the dining-room, where he 
kept them, until supper-time. 

After supper, the rest of the family dispersed., and 
the boys’ mother invited them to come with her and Hugh 
to her own room, though they were eager to go and see 
the General, and were much troubled lest he should think 
their mother was rude in leaving him. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


T HE next day was Sunday. The General and 
Hugh had but one day to stay. They were to 
leave at daybreak the following morning. They 
throughly enjoyed their holiday; at least the boys knew 
that Hugh did. They had never known him so affable 
with them. .They did not see much of the General, after 
breakfast. He seemed to like to stay “stuck up in the 
house” all the time, talking to Cousin Belle; the boys 
thought this due to his lameness. Something had oc¬ 
curred, the boys didn’t understand just what; but the 
General was on an entirely new footing with all of them, 
and their Cousin Belle was in some way concerned in the 
change. She did not any longer run from the General, 
and it seemed to them as though everyone acted as if he 
belonged to her. The boys did not altogether like the 
state of affairs. That afternoon, however, he and their 
Cousin Belle let the boys go out walking with them,, and 
he was just as hearty as he could be; he made them tell 
him all about capturing the deserter, and about catching 
the hogs, and everything they did. They told him all 
about their “Robbers’ Cave,” down in the woods near 

107 


108 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

where an old house had stood. It was between two ra¬ 
vines near a spring they had found. They had fixed up 
the “cave” with boards and old pieces of carpet “and 
everything,” and they told him, as a secret, how to get 
to it through the pines without leaving a trail. He had 
to give the holy pledge of the “Brotherhood” before this 
could be divulged to him; but he took it with a solemnity 
which made the boys almost forgive the presence of their 
Cousin Belle. It was a little awkward at first that she 
was present; but as the “Constitution” provided only as 
to admitting men to the mystic knowledge, saying nothing 
about women, this difficulty was, on the General’s sugges¬ 
tion, passed over,, and the boys fully explained the loca¬ 
tion of the spot, and how to get there by turning off 
abruptly from the path through the big woods right at 
the pine thicket,—and all the rest of the way. 

“ ’Tain’t a 'sure-enough’ cave,” explained Willy; “but 
it’s ’most as good as one. The old rock fire-place is just 
like a cave.” 

“The gullies are so deep you can’t get there except 
that one way,” declared Frank. 

“Even the Yankees couldn’t find you there,” asserted 
Willy. 

“I don’t believe anybody could, after that; but I trust 
they will never have to try,” laughed their Cousin Belle, 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 109 

with an anxious look in her bright eyes at the mere 
thought. 

That night they were at supper, about eight o’clock, 
when something out-of-doors attracted the attention of 
the party around the table. It was a noise,—a something 
indefinable, but the talk and mirth stopped suddenly, and 
everybody listened. 

There was a call, and the hurried steps of some one 
running, just outside the door, and Lucy Ann burst into 
the room, her face ashy pale. 

“The yard’s full o’ mens—Yankees,,” she gasped, just 
as the General and Hugh rose from the table. 

“How many are there?” asked both gentlemen. 

“They’s all ’roun’ the house ev’y which a-way.” 

The General looked at his sweetheart. She came to 
his side with a cry. 

“Go up stairs to the top of the house,” called the 
boys’ mother. 

“We can hide you; come with us,” said the boys. 

“Go up the back way, Frank ’n’ Willy, to you-all’s 
den,” whispered Lucy Ann. 

“That’s where we are going,” said the boys as she 

went out. 

“You all come on!” This to the General and Hugh. 

“The rest of you take your seats,” said the boys’ 
mother. 


IIO TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

All this Had occupied only a few seconds. The sol¬ 
diers followed the boys out by a side-door and dashed up 
the narrow stairs to the second-story just as a thundering 
knocking came at the front door. It was as dark as pitch, 
for candles were too scarce to burn more than one at a 
time. 

“You run back,” said Hugh to the boys, as they groped 
along. “There are too many of us. I know the way.” 

But it was too late; the noise down stairs told that 
the enemy was already in the house! 

As the soldiers left the supper-room,, the boys’ mother 
had hastily removed two plates from the places and set 
two chairs back against the wall; she made the rest fill up 
the spaces, so that there was nothing to show that the 
two men had been there. 

She had hardly taken her seat again, when the sound 
of heavy footsteps at the door announced the approach of 
the enemy. She herself rose and went to the door; but 
it was thrown open before she reached it and an officer 
in full Federal uniform strode in, followed by several men. 

The commander was a tall young fellow, not older 
than the General. The lady started back somewhat 
startled, and there was a confused chorus of exclama¬ 
tions of alarm from the rest of those at the table. The 
officer, finding himself in the presence of ladies, removed 
his cap with a polite bow. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


hi 


“I hope, madam, that you ladies will not be alarmed/’ 
he said. “You need be under no apprehension, I assure 
you.” Even while speaking, his eye had taken a hasty 
survey of the room. 

“We desire to see General Marshall, who is at present 
in this house and I am, sorry to have to include your son 
in my requisition. We know that they are here, and if 
they are given us, I promise you that nothing shall be 
disturbed.” 

“You appear to be so well instructed that I can add 
little to your information,” said the mistress of the house, 
haughtily. “I am glad to say, however, that X hardly 
think you will find them.” 

“Madam, I know they are here,,” said the young sol¬ 
dier positively, but with great politeness. “I have posi¬ 
tive information to that effect. They arrived last eve¬ 
ning and have not left since. Their horses are still in 
the stable. I am sorry to be forced to do violence to my 
feelings, but I must search the house. Come, men.” 

“I doubt not you have found their horses,” began the 
lady, but she was interrupted by Lucy Ann, who entered 
at the moment with a plate of fresh corn-cakes, and 
caught the last part of the sentence. 

“Come along, Mister,” she said,, “I’ll show you my¬ 
self,” and she set down her plate, took the candle from 


ii2 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

the table, and walked to the door, followed by the sol¬ 
diers. 

“Lucy Ann! ,, exclaimed her mistress; but she was too 
much amazed at the girl's conduct to say more. 

“I know whar dey is!" Lucy Ann continued, taking no 
notice of her mistress. They heard her say, as she was 
shutting the door, “Y' all come with me; I 'feared they 
gone; ef they ain’t, I know whar they is!” 

“Open every room," said the officer. 

“Oh, yes, sir; I gwine ketch 'em for you," she said, 
eagerly opening first one door, and then the other, “that 
is, ef they ain' gone. I mighty ’feared they gone. I seen 
'em goin' out the back way about a little while befo' you 
all come,—but I thought they might ’a’ come back. Mis¬ 
ter, ken y' all teck me 'long with you when you go?" she 
asked the officer, in a low voice. “I want to be free." 

“I don't know; we can some other time, if not now. 
We are going to set you all free." 

“Oh, glory! Come 'long, Mister; let's ketch 'em. 
They ain’t heah, but I know whar dey is." 

The soldiers closely examined every place where it 
was possible a man could be concealed, until they had been 
over all the lower part of the house. 

Lucy Ann stopped. “Dey's gone!" she said positively. 

The officer motioned to her to go up stairs. 

“Yes, sir, I wuz jes' goin’ tell you we jes’ well look up- 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


ii3 

stairs, too,” she said, leading the way,, talking all the time, 
and shading the flickering candle with her hand. 

The little group, flat on the floor against the wall in 
their dark retreat, could now hear her voice distinctly. 
She was speaking in a confidential undertone, as if afraid 
of being overheard. 

“I wonder I didn’t have sense to get somebody to 
watch ’em when they went out,” they heard her say. 

“She’s betrayed us!” whispered Hugh. 

The General merely said, “Hush,” and laid his hand 
firmly on the nearest boy to keep him still. Lucy Ann 
led the soldiers into the various chambers one after an- 
other. At last she opened the next room, and, through the 
wall, the men in hiding heard the soldiers go in and walk 
about. 

They estimated that there were at least half-a-dozen. 

“Isn’t there a garret?” asked one of the searching 
party. 

“Nor, sir, ’tain’t no garret, jes’ a loft; but they ain’t 
up there,” said Lucy Ann’s voice. 

“We’ll look for ourselves.” They came out of the 
room. “Show us the way.” 

“Look here, if you tell us a lie, we’ll hang you!” 

The voice of the officer was very stern. 

“I ain’ gwine tell you no lie, Mister. What you reckon 
I wan’ tell you lie for? Dey ain’ in the garret, I 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


114 

know*—— Mister, please don’t p’int dem things at me. 
I’s ’feared o’ dem things,” said the girl in a slightly whim¬ 
pering voice; “I gwine show you.” 

She came straight down the passage toward the recess 
where the fugitives were huddled, the men after her, their 
heavy steps echoing through the house. The boys were 
trembling violently. The light, as the searchers came 
nearer, fell on the wall, crept along it, until it lighted up 
the whole alcove, except where they lay. The boys held 
their breath. They could hear their hearts thumping. 

Lucy Ann stepped into the recess with her candle, and 
looked straight at them. 

“They ain’t in here,” she exclaimed* suddenly putting 
her hand up before the flame, as if to prevent it flaring, 
thus throwing the alcove once more into darkness. “The 
trap-door to the garret’s ’roun’ that a-way,” she said to 
the soldiers, still keeping her position at the narrow en¬ 
trance, as if to let them pass. When they had all passed, 
she followed them. 

The boys began to wriggle with delight, but the Gen¬ 
eral’s strong hand kept them still. 

Naturally, the search in the garret proved fruitless, 
and the hiding-party heard the squad swearing over their 
ill-luck as they came back; while Lucy Ann loudly la¬ 
mented not having sent some one to follow the fugitives, 
and made a number of suggestions as to where they had 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 115 

gone, and the probability of catching them if the soldiers 
went at once in pursuit. 

“Did you look in here?” asked a soldier, approaching 
the alcove. 

“Yes, sir; they ain’t in there.” She snuffed the can¬ 
dle out suddenly with her fingers. “Oh, oh!—my light 
done gone out! Mind! Let me go in front and show you 
the way,” she said; and, pressing before, she once more 
led them along the passage. 

“Mind yo’ steps; ken you see?” she asked. 

They went down stairs, while Lucy Ann gave them 
minute directions as to how they might catch “Marse 
Hugh an’ the Gen’l” at a certain place a half-mile from 
the house (an unoccupied quarter), which she carefully 
described. 

A further investigation ensued downstairs, but in a 
little while the searchers went out of the house. Their 
tone had changed since their disappointment,, and loud 
threats floated up the dark stairway to the prisoners still 
crouching in the little recess 

In a few minutes the boys’ Cousin Belle came rush¬ 
ing up stairs. 

“Now’s your time! Come quick,” she called; “they 
will be back directly. Isn’t she an angel!” Jhe whole 
party sprang to their feet, and ran down to the lower 
floor. 


n6 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

“Oh, we were so frightened!” “Don’t let them see 
you.” “Make haste,” were the exclamations that greeted 
them as the two soldiers said their good-byes and prepared 
to leave the house. 

“Go out by the side-door; that’s your only chance. 
It’s pitch-dark, and the bushes will hide you. But where 
are you going?” 

“We are going to the boys’ cave,” said the General, 
buckling on his pistol; “I know the way, and we’ll get 
away as soon as these fellows leave, if we cannot before.” 

“God bless you!” said the ladies, pushing them away 
in dread of the enemy’s return. 

“Come on, General,” called Hugh in an undertone. 
The General was lagging behind a minute to say good-bye 
once more. He stooped suddenly and kissed the boys’ 
Cousin Belle before them all. 

“Good-bye. God bless you!” and he followed Hugh 
out of the window into the darkness. The girl burst into 
tears and ran up to her room,. 

A few seconds afterward the house was once more 
filled with the enemy, growling at their ill-luck in having 
so narrowly missed the prize. 

“We’ll catch ’em yet,” said the leader. 


CHAPTER XV. 


T HE raiders were up early next morning scouring 
the woods and country around. They knew 
that the fugitive soldiers could not have gone 
far, for the Federals had every road picketed, and their 
main body was not far away. As the morning wore on, 
it became a grave question at Oakland how the two sol¬ 
diers were to subsist. They had no provisions with them, 
and the roads were so closely watched that there was no 
chance of their obtaining any. The matter was talked 
over, and the boys’ mother and Cousin Belle were in 
despair. 

“They can eat their shoes,” said Willy, reflectively. 
The ladies exclaimed in horror. 

“That’s what men always do when they get lost in 
a wilderness where there is no game.” 

This piece of information from Willy did not impress 
his hearers as much as he supposed it would. 

“PH'tell you! Let me and Frank go and carry ’em 
something to eat!” 

“How do you know where they are?” 

“They are at our Robber’s Cave, aren’t they, Cousin 


n8 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

Belle? We told the General yesterday how to get there, 
didn't we?” 

“Yes, and he said last night that he would go there.” 

Willy's idea seemed a good one, and the offer was 
accepted. The boys were to go out as if to see the troops, 
and were to take as much food as they thought could 
pass for their luncheon. Their mother cooked and put 
up a luncheon large enough to have satisfied the appetites 
of two young Brobdingnagians, and they set out on their 
relief expedition. 

The two sturdy little figures looked full of impor- 

♦ 

tance as they strode off up the road. They carried many 
loving messages. Their Cousin Belle gave to each sepa¬ 
rately a long whispered message which each by himself 
was to deliver to the General. It was thought best not to 
hazard a note. 

They were watched by the ladies from the portico until 
they disappeared over the hill. They took a path which 
led into the woods, and walked cautiously for fear some 
of the raiders might be lurking about. However, the boys 
saw none of the enemy, and in a little while they came to 
a point where the pines began. Then they turned into 
the woods, for the pines were so thick the boys could not 
be seen, and the pine tags made it so soft under foot that 
they could walk without making any noise. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 119 

They were pushing their way through the bushes, 
when Frank suddenly stopped. 

“Hush!” he said. 

Willy halted and listened. 

“There they are.” 

From a little distance to one side, in the direction of 
the path they had just left, they heard the trampling of 
a number of horses’ feet. 

“That’s not our men,” said Willy. “Hugh and the 
General haven’t any horses.” 

“No; that’s the Yankees,” said Frank. “Let’s lie down. 
They may hear us.” 

The boys flung themselves upon the ground and al¬ 
most held their breath until the horses had passed out of 
hearing. 

“Do you reckon they are hunting for us?” asked 
Willy in an awed whisper. 

“No, for Hugh and the General. Come on.” 

They rose, went tipping a little deeper into the pines, 
and again made their way toward the cave. 

“Maybe they’ve caught ’em,” suggested Willy. 

“They can’t catch ’em in these pines,,” replied Frank. 
“You can’t see any distance at all. A horse can’t get 
through, and the General and Hugh could shoot ’em, and 
then get away before they could catch ’em,” 

They hurried on. 


120 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


“Frank, suppose they take us for Yankees ?” 

Evidently Willy's mind had been busy since Frank’s 
last speech. 

“They aren’t going to shoot us” said Frank; but it 
was an unpleasant suggestion, for they were not very far 
from the dense clump of pines between two gullies, which 
the boys called their cave. 

“We can whistle,” he said, presently. 

“Won’t Hugh and the General think we are enemies 
trying to surround them?” Willy objected. The dilemma 
was a serious one. “We’ll have to crawl up,” said Frank, 
after a pause. 

And this was agreed upon. They were soon on the 
edge of the deep gully which,, on one side, protected the 
spot from all approach. They scrambled down its steep 
side and began to creep along, peeping over its other edge 
from time to time, to see if they could discover the clear¬ 
ing which marked the little green spot on top of the hill, 
where once had stood an old cabin. The base of the 
ruined chimney, with its immense fire-place, constituted 
the boys’ “cave.” They were close to it, now, and felt 
themselves to be in imminent danger of a sweeping fusil¬ 
lade. They had just crept up to the top of the ravine and 
were consulting, when some one immediately behind them, 
not twenty feet away, called out: 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


121 


“Hello! What are you boys doing here? Are you 
trying to capture us?” 

They jumped at the unexpected voice. The General 
broke into a laugh. He had been sitting on the ground 
on the other side of the declivity, and had been watch¬ 
ing their manoeuvres for some time. 

He brought them to the house-spot where Hugh was 
asleep on the ground; he had been on watch all the morn¬ 
ing, and, during the General’s turn, was making up for 
his lost sleep. He was soon wide awake enough, and he 
and the General, with appetites bearing witness to their 
long fast, were without delay engaged in disposing of 
the provisions which the boys had brought. 

The boys were delighted with the mystery of their sur¬ 
roundings. Each in turn took the General aside and held 
a long interview with him, and gave him all their Cousin 
Belle’s messages. No one had ever treated them with 
such consideration as the General showed them. The two 
men asked the boys all about the dispositions of the enemy, 
but the boys had little to tell. 

“They are after us pretty hotly,” said the General. 
“I think they are going away shortly. It’s nothing but a 
raid, and they are moving on. We must get back to camp 
to-night.” 

“How are you going?” asked the boys. “You haven’t 
any horses.” 


122 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


“We are going to get some of their horses,,” said the of¬ 
ficer. “They have taken ours—now they must furnish 
us with others.” 

It was about time for the boys to start for home. The 
General took each of them aside, and talked for a long 
time. He was speaking to Willy, on the edge of the clear¬ 
ing, when there was a crack of a twig in the pines. In a 
second he had laid the boy on his back in the soft grass 
and whipped out a pistol. Then, with a low, quick call 
to Hugh, he sprang swiftly into the pines toward the 
sound. 

“Crawl down into the ravine, boys,” called Hugh, fol¬ 
lowing his companion. The boys rolled down over the 
bank like little ground-hogs; but in a second they heard 
a familiar drawling voice call out in a subdued tone: 

“Hold on, Cunnel! it’s nobody but me; don’t you know 
me?” And,, in a moment, they heard the General’s as¬ 
tonished and somewhat stern reply: 

“Mills, what are you doing here? Who’s with you? 
What do you want?” 

“Well,” said the new-comer, slowly, “I ’lowed I’d come 
to see if I could be o’ any use to you. I heard the Yankees 
had run you ’way from Oakland last night, and was sort 
6’ huntin’ for you. Fact is, they’s been up my way, and 
I sort o’ ’lowed I’d come an’ see ef I could help you git 
back to camp.” 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


123 

“Where have you been all this time? I wonder you 
are not ashamed to look me in the face!” 

The General's voice was still stern. He had turned 
around and walked back to the cleared space. 

The deserter scratched his head in perplexity. 

“I needn' 'a' come,/' he said, doggedly. “Where's 
them boys? I don' want the boys hurted. I seen 'em 
cornin’ here, an' I jes’ followed 'em, to see they didn't get 
in no trouble. But-" 

This speech about the boys effected what the offer of 
personal service to the General himself had failed to bring 
about. 

“Sit down and let me talk to you/' said the General, 
throwing himself on the grass. 

Mills seated himself cross-legged near the officer, with 
his gun across his knees, and began to bite a straw which 
he pulled from a tuft by his side. 

The boys had come up out of their retreat, and taken 
places on each side of the General. 

“You all take to grass like young partridges," said the 
hunter. The boys were flattered, for they considered any 
notice from him a compliment. 

“What made you fool us, and send us to catch that 
conscript-guard?" Frank asked. 

“Well, you ketched him, didn't you? You're the only 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


124 

ones ever been able to ketch him,” he said, with a low 
chuckle. 

“Now,, Mills, you know how things stand,” said the 
General. “It's a shame for you to have been acting this 
way. You know what people say about you. But if you 
come back to camp and do your duty, I’ll have it all 
straightened out. If you don’t, I’ll have you shot.” 

His voice was as calm and his manner as composed 
as if he were promising the man opposite him a reward 
for good conduct. He looked Mills steadily in the eyes 
all the time. The boys felt as if their friend were about 
to be executed. The General seemed an immeasurable 
distance above them. 

The deserter blinked twice or thrice, slowly bit his 
shred of straw, looked casually first toward one boy and 
then toward the other, but without the slightest change 
of expression in his face. 

“Cun’l,” he said, at length, “I ain’t no deserter. I 
ain’t feared of bein’ shot. Ef I was, I wouldn’ ’a’ come 
here now. I’m gwine wid you, an’ I’m gwine back to my 
company; an’ I’m gwine fight, ef Yankees gits in my way; 
but ef I gits tired, I’s cornin’ home; an’ ’tain’t no use to 
tell you I ain’t, ’cause I is, —an’ ef anybody flings up to me 
that I’s a-runnin’ away, I’m gwine to kill ’em!” 

He rose to his feet in the intensity of his feeling, and 
his eyes, usually so dull, were like live coals. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 125 

The General looked at him quietly a few seconds, then 
himself arose and laid his hand on Tim Mills’ shoulder. 

“All right,” he said. 

“I got a little snack M’lindy put up,” said Mills, pull¬ 
ing a substantial bundle out of his game-bag. “I ’lowed 
maybe you might be sort o’ hongry. Jes’ two or three 
squirrels I shot,” he said, apologetically. 

“You boys better git ’long home, I reckon,” said Mills 
to Willy. “You ain’ ’fraid, is you? ’Cause if you is, 
I’ll go with you.” 

His voice had resumed its customary drawl. 

“Oh, no t ,” said both boys, eagerly. “We aren’t 
afraid.” 

“An’ tell your ma I ain’ let nobody tetch nothin’ on 
the Oakland plantation; not sence that day you all went 
huntin’ deserters; not if I knowed ’bout it.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“An’ tell her I’m gwine take good keer o’ Hugh an’ 
the Cunnel. Good-bye!—now run along!” 

“All right, sir,—good-bye.” 

“An’ ef you hear anybody say Tim Mills is a d’serter, 
tell ’em it’s a lie, an’ you know it. Good-bye.” He turned 
away as if relieved. 

The boys said good-bye to all three, and started in the 
direction of home. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


A FTER crossing the gully, and walking on through 
the woods for what they thought a safe distance, 
^they turned into the path. 

They were talking very merrily about the General and 
Hugh and their friend Mills, and were discussing some 



enemy, when they came out of the path into the road, 
and found themselves within twenty yards of a group of 
Federal soldiers, quietly sitting on their horses, evidently 
guarding the road. 

JThe sight of the blue-coats made the boys jump. [They 
would have crept back, but it was too late—they caught 
the eye of the man nearest them. They ceased talking 
as suddenly as birds in the trees stop chirruping when the 
hawk sails over; and when one Yankee called to them, in 
a stern tone, “Halt there!” and started to come toward 
them, their hearts were in their mouths. 

“Where are you boys going?” he asked, as he came 
up to them. 

“Going home.” 

“Where do you belong?” 


126 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


127 

“Over there—at Oakland,” pointing in the direction 
of their home, which seemed suddenly to have moved a 
thousand miles aways. 

“Where have you been?” The other soldiers had 
come up now. 

“Been down this way.” t The boys’ voices were never 
so meek before. Each reply was like an apology. 

“Been to see your brother?” asked one who had not 
spoken before—a pleasant-looking fellow. The boys 
looked at him. They were paralyzed by dread of the 
approaching question. 

“Now, boys,, we know where you have been,” said a 
small fellow, who wore a yellow chevron on his arm. He 
had a thin moustache and a sharp nose, and rode a wiry, 
dull sorrel horse. “You may just as well tell us all about 
it. We know youVe been to see ’em, and we are going 
to make you carry us where they are.” 

“No, we ain’t,” said Frank, doggedly. 

Willy expressed his determination also. 

“If you don’t it’s going to be pretty bad for you,” 
said the little corporal. He gave an order to two of the 
men, who sprang from their horsey, and, catching Frank, 
swung him up behind another cavalryman. The boy’s 
face was very pale, but he bit his lip. 

“Go ahead,” continued the corporal to a number of 
his men, who started down the path. “You four men re- 


128 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


main here till we come back/’ he said to the men on the 
ground, and to two others on horseback. “Keep him 
here/’ jerking his thumb toward Willy, whose face was 
already burning with emotion. 

“Em going with Frank,” said Willy. “Let me go.” 
This to the man who had hold of him by the arm. “Frank, 
make him let me go,,” he shouted, bursting into tears, and 
turning on his captor with all his little might. 

“Willy, he’s not goin’ to hurt you,—don’t you tell!” 
called Frank, squirming until he dug his heels so into 
the horse’s flanks that the horse began to kick up. 

“Keep quiet, Johnny; he’s not goin’ to hurt him,” said 
one of the men, kindly. He had a brown beard and shin¬ 
ing white teeth. 

They rode slowly down the narrow path, the dragoon 
holding Frank by the leg. Deep down in the woods, be¬ 
yond a small branch, the path forked. 

“Which way?” asked the corporal, stopping and ad¬ 
dressing Frank. 

Frank set his mouth tight and looked him in the eyes. 

“Which is it?” the corporal repeated. 

“I ain’t going to tell,,” said he, firmly. 

“Look here, Johnny; we’ve got you, and we are going 
to make you tell us; so you might just as well do it, easy. 
If you don’t, we’re goin’ to make you.” 

The boy said nothing. 



THE BOY FACED HIS CAPTOR, WHO HELD A STRAP IN ONE HAND. 






















































» 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 131 

“You men dismount. Stubbs, hold the horses.” He 
himself dismounted, and three others did the same, giving 
their horses to a fourth. 

“Get down!”—this to Frank and the soldier behind 
whom he was riding. The soldier dismounted, and the 
boy slipped off after him and faced his captor, who held 
a strap in one hand. 

“Are you goin’ to tell us?” he asked. 

“No.” 

“Don’t you know ?” He came a step nearer,, and held 
the strap forward. There was a long silence. [The boy’s 
face paled perceptibly, but took on a look as if the pro¬ 
ceedings were indifferent to him. 

“If you say you don’t know”—said the man, hesitat¬ 
ing in face of the boy’s resolution. “Don’t you know 
where they are?” 

“Yes, I know; but I ain’t goin’ to tell you,” said Frank, 
bursting into tears. 

“The little Johnny’s game,” said the soldier who had 
told him the others were not going to hurt Willy. The 
corporal said something to this man in an undertone, to 
which he replied: 

“You can try, but it isn’t going to do any good. I 
don’t half like it, anyway.” 

Frank had stopped crying after his first outburst. 


132 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

“If you don’t tell, we are going to shoot you,” said 
the little soldier, drawing his pistol. 

The boy shut his mouth close, and looked straight at 
the corporal. The man laid down his pistol, and, seizing 
Frank, drew his hands behind him, and tied them.. 

“Get ready, men,” he said, as he drew the boy aside to 
a small tree, putting him with his back to it. 

Frank thought his hour had come. He thought of his 
mother and Willy, and wondered if the soldiers would 
shoot Willy, too. His face twitched and grew ghastly 
white. Then he thought of his father, and of how proud 
he would be of his son’s bravery when he should hear of 
it. This gave him strength. 

“The knot—hurts my hands,” he said. 

The man leaned over and eased it a little. 

“I wasn’t crying because I was scared,” said Frank. 

The kind looking fellow turned away. 

“Now, boys, get ready,” said the corporal, taking up 
his pistol. 

How large it looked to Frank. He wondered where 
the bullets would hit him, and if the wounds would bleed, 
and whether he would be left alone all night out there in 
the woods, and if his mother would come and kiss him. 

“I want to say my prayers,” he said, faintly. 

The soldier made some reply which he could not hear, 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


133 

and the man with the beard started forward; but just 
then all grew dark before his eyes. 

Next, he thought he must have been shot, for he felt 
wet about his face, and was lying down. He heard some 
one say, “He’s coming to;” and another replied, “Thank 
God!” 

He opened his eyes. He was lying beside the little 
branch with his head in the lap of the big soldier with the 
beard, and the little corporal was leaning over him throw¬ 
ing water in his face from a cap. The others were stand¬ 
ing around. 

“What’s the matter?” asked Frank. 

“That’s all right,” said the little corporal, kindly. 
“We were just a-foolin’ a bit with you, Johnny.” 

“We never meant to hurt you,” said the other. “You 
feel better now?” 

“Yes, where’s Willy?” He was too tired to move. 
“He’s all right. We’ll take you to him.” 

“Am I shot?” asked Frank. 

“No! Do you think we’d have touched a hair of your 
head—and you such a brave little fellow? We were just 
trying to scare you a bit and carried it too far, and you 
got a little faint,—that’s all.” 

The voice was so kindly that Frank was encouraged to 

sit up. 


134 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


“Can you walk now?” asked the corporal, helping him 
and steadying him as he rose to his feet. 

‘Til take him,” said the big fellow, and before the boy 
could move,, he had stooped, taken Frank in his arms, and 
was carrying him back toward the place where they had 
left Willy, while the others followed after with the horses. 

“I can walk,” said Frank. 

“No, I’ll carry you, b-bless your heart!” 

The boy did not know that the big dragoon was look¬ 
ing down at the light hair resting on his arm, and that 
while he trod the Virginia wood-path, in fancy he was 
home in Delaware; or that the pressure the boy felt from 
his strong arms, was a caress given for the sake of an¬ 
other boy far away on the Brandywine. A little while 
before they came in sight Frank asked to be put down. 

The soldier gently set him on his feet, and before he 
let him go kissed him. 

“I’ve got a curly-headed fellow at home, just the size 
of you,” he said softly. 

Frank saw that his eyes were moist. “I hope you’ll 
get safe back to him,” he said. 

“God grant it!” said the soldier. 

When they reached the squad at the gate,, they found 
Willy still in much distress on Frank’s account; but he 
wiped his eyes when his brother reappeared, and listened 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


135 


with pride to the soldiers’ praise of Frank’s “grit,” as 
they called it. When they let the boys go, the little cor¬ 
poral wished Frank to accept a five-dollar gold piece; but 
he politely declined it. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


f | ^HE story of Frank’s adventure and courage was 

I the talk of all the Oakland plantation. His 
mother and Cousin Belle both kissed him, and 
called him their little hero. Willy also received a full 
share of praise for his courage. 

About noon there was great commotion among the 
troops. They were far more numerous than they had 
been in the morning, and instead of riding about the woods 
in small bodies, hunting for the concealed soldiers, they 
were collecting together and preparing to move. 

It was learned that a considerable body of cavalry 
was passing down the road by Trinity Church, and that 
the depot had been burnt again the night before. Some¬ 
how, a rumor got about that the Confederates were fol¬ 
lowing up the raiders. 

In an hour most of the soldiers went away, but a 
number still stayed on. Their horses were picketed about 
the yard feeding; and they themselves lounged around, 
making themselves at home in the house, and pulling to 
pieces the things that were left. They were not, how¬ 
ever, as wanton in their destruction as the first set, who 

had passed by the year before. 

136 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


137 


Among those who yet remained were the little cor¬ 
poral, and the big young soldier who had been so kind 
to Frank. They were in the rear-guard. At length the 
last man rode off. 

The boys had gone in and out among them, without 
being molested. Now and then some rough fellow would 
swear at them, but for the most part their intercourse 
with the boys was friendly. When, therefore, they rode 
off, the boys were allowed by their mother to go and see 
the main body. 

Peter and Cole were with them. They took the main 
road and followed along, picking up straps,, and cartridges, 
and all those miscellaneous things dropped by a large body 
of troops as they pass along. 

Cartridges were very valuable, as they furnished the 
only powder and shot the boys could get for hunting, and 
their supply was out. These were found in unusual num¬ 
bers. The boys filled their pockets, and finally filled their 
sleeves, tying them tightly at the wrist with strings, so 
that the contents would not spill out. One of the boys 
found even an old pistol, which was considered a great 
treasure. He bore it proudly in his belt, and was envied 
by all the others. 

It was quite late in the afternoon when they thought 
of turning toward home, their pockets and sleeves bagging 
down with the heavy musket-cartridges. They left the 


138 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES < 

Federal rear-guard feeding their horses at a great white 
pile of corn which had been thrown out of the corn-house 
of a neighbor, and was scattered all over the ground. 

They crossed a field,, descended a hill, and took the 
main road at its foot, just as a body of cavalry came 
in sight. A small squad, riding some little distance in 
advance of the main body, had already passed by . These 
were Confederates. The first man they saw, at the head' 
of the column b}^ the colonel, was the General, and a little 
behind him was none other than Hugh on a gray roan; 
while not far down the column rode their friend Tim 
Mills, looking rusty and sleepy as usual. 

“Goodness! Why, here are the General and Hugh! 
How in the world did you get away?” exclaimed the boys. 

They learned that it was a column of cavalry following 
the line of the raid, and that the General and Hugh had 
met them and volunteered. The soldiers greeted the boys 
cordially. 

“The Yankees are right up there,” said the youngsters. 

“Where? How many? What are they doing?” 
asked the General. 

“A whole pack of ’em—right up there at the stables,, 
and all about, feeding their horses and sitting all around, 
and ever so many more have gone along down the road.” 

“Fling the fence down there!” The boys pitched 
down the rails in two or three places. An order was 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


139 

passed back, and in an instant a stir of preparation was 
noticed all down the line of horsemen. 

A courier galloped up the road to recall the advance- 
guard. The head of the column passed through the gap, 
and, without waiting for the others, dashed up the hill at 
a gallop—the General and the colonel a score of yards 
ahead of any of the others. 

“Let’s go and see the fight!” cried the boys; and the 
whole set started back up the hill as fast as their legs could 
carry them. 

“S’pose they shoot! Won’t they shoot us?” asked 
one of the negro boys, in some apprehension. This, 
though before unthought of, was a possibility, and for 
a moment brought them down to a slower pace. 

“We can lie flat and peep over the top of the hill.” 
This was Frank’s happy thought,, and the party started 
ahead again. “Let’s go around that way.” They made 
a little detour. 

Just before they reached the crest they heard a shot, 
“bang!” immediately followed by another, “bang!” and 
in a second more a regular volley began, and was kept up. 

They reached the crest of the hill in time to see the 
Confederates gallop up the slope toward the stables, firing 
their pistols at the blue-coats, who were forming in the 
edge of a little wood, over beyond a fence, from the other 
side of which the smoke of their carbines was rolling. 


140 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


They had evidently started on just as the boys left, and 
before the Confederates came in sight. 

The boys saw their friends dash at this fence, and 
could distinguish the General and Hugh, who were still in 
the lead. Their horses took the fence,, going over like 
birds, and others followed,—Tim Mills among them,— 
while yet more went through a gate a few yards to one 
side. 

“Look at Hugh! Look at Hugh!” 

“Look! That horse has fallen down!” cried one of 
the boys, as a horse went down just at the entrance of the 
wood, rolling over his rider. 

“He's shot!” exclaimed Frank, for neither horse nor 
rider attempted to rise. 

“See; they are running!” 

The little squad of blue-coats were retiring into the 
woods, with the grays closely pressing them. 

“Let's cut across and see ’em run ’em over the bridge.” 

“Come on!” 

All the little group of spectators, white and black, 
started as hard as they could go for a path they knew, 
which led by a short cut through the little piece of woods. 
Beyond lay a field divided by a stream,, a short distance 
on the other side of which was a large body of woods. 

The popping was still going on furiously in the woods, 
and bullets were “zoo-ing” over the fields. But the boys 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


141 

could not see anything, and they did not think about the 
flying balls. 

They were all excitement at the idea of “our men” 
whipping the enemy, and they ran with all their might to 
be in time to see them “chase 'em across the field.” 

The road on which the skirmish took place, and down 
which the Federal rear-guard had retreated, made a sharp 
curve beyond the woods, around the bend of a little stream 
crossed by a small bridge; and the boys, in taking the 
short cut, had placed the road between themselves and 
home; but they did not care about that, for their men were 
driving the others. They “just wanted to see it.” 

They reached the edge of the field in time to see that 
the Yankees were on the other side of the stream. They 
knew them to be where puffs of smoke came out of the 
opposite wood. And the Confederates had stopped be¬ 
yond the bridge, and were halted, in some confusion, in 
the field. 

The firing was very sharp, and bullets were singing 
in every direction. Then the Confederates got together, 
and went as hard as they could right at them up to the 
wood, all along the edge of which the smoke was pouring 
in continuous puffs and with a rattle of shots. They saw 
several horses fall as the Confederates galloped on, but 
the smoke hid most of it. Next they saw a long line of 
fire appear in the smoke on both sides of the road, where 


142 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


it entered the wood; then the Confederates stopped, and 
became all mixed up; a number of horses galloped away 
without their riders, another line of white and red flame 
came out of the woods, the Confederates began to come 
back, leaving many horses on the ground,, and a body 
of cavalry in blue coats poured out of the wood in pursuit. 

“Look! look! They are running—they are beating 
our men!” exclaimed the boys. “They have driven ’em 
back across the bridge!” 

“How many of them there are!” 

“What shall we do? Suppose they see us!” 

“Come on, Mah’srs Frank ’n’ Willy, let’s go home,” 
said the colored boys. “They’ll shoot us.” 

The fight was now in the woods which lay between 
the boys and their home. But just then the gray-coats 
got together, again turned at the edge of the wood, and 
dashed back on their pursuers, and—the smoke and bushes 
on the stream hid everything. In a second more both 
emerged on the other side of the smoke and went into the 
woods on the further edge of the field, all in confusion, 
and leaving on the ground more horses and men than 
before. 

“What’s them things ‘zip-zippin’ ’round my ears?” 
asked one of the negro boys. 

“Bullets,” said Frank,, proud of his knowledge. 

“Will they hurt me if they hit me?” 



LOOK ! LOOK ! THEY ARE RUNNING ! THEY ARE BEATING OUR MEN l” EXCLAIMED THE BOYS. 










TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


145 


“Of course they will. They’ll kill you.” 

“I’m gwine home,” said the boy, and off he started at 
a trot. 

“Hold on!—We’re goin’, too; but let’s go down this 
way; this is the best way.” 

They went along the edge of the field, toward the 
point in the road where the skirmish had been and where 
the Confederates had rallied. They stopped to listen to 
the popping in the woods on the other side, and were just 
saying how glad they were that “our men had whipped 
them,” when a soldier came along. 

“What in the name of goodness are you boys doing 
here?” he asked. 

“We’re just looking on an’ lis’ning,” answered the boys 
meekly. 

“Well, you’d better be getting home as fast as you 
can. They are too strong for us, and they’ll be driving 
us back directly, and some of you may get killed or run 
over.” 

This was dreadful! Such an idea had never occurred 
to the boys. A panic took possession of them, 

“Come on! Let’s go home!” This was the universal 
idea, and in a second the whole party were cutting straight 
for home, utterly stampeded. 

They could readily have found shelter and security 
back over the hill, from the flying balls; but they preferred 


146 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

to get home, and they made straight for it. The popping 
of the guns, which still kept up in the woods across the 
little river, now meant to them that the victorious Yan¬ 
kees were driving back their friends. They believed that 
the bullets which now and then yet whistled over the woods 
with a long, singing “zoo-ee," were aimed at them. For 
their lives, then, they ran,, expecting to be killed every 
minute. 

The load of cartridges in their pockets, which they 
had carried for hours, weighed them down. As they ran 
they threw these out. Then followed those in their 
sleeves. Frank and the other boys easily got rid of theirs, 
but Willy had tied the strings around his wrists in such 
hard knots that he could not possibly untie them. He 
was falling behind. 

Frank heard him call. Without slacking his speed he 
looked back over his shoulder. Willy's face was red, and 
his mouth was twitching. He was sobbing a little, and 
was tearing at the strings with his teeth as he ran. Then 
the strings came loose one after the other, the cartridges 
were shaken out over the ground, and Willy's face at 
once cleared up as he ran forward lightened of his load. 

They had passed almost through the narrow skirt of 
woods where the first attack was made, when they heard 
some one not far from the side of the road call, “Water!" 

The boys stopped. “What's that?" they asked each 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 147 

other in a startled undertone. A groan came from the 
same direction, and a voice said, “Oh, for some water!” 

A short, whispered consultation was held. 

“He’s right up on that bank. There’s a road up 
there.” 

Frank advanced a little; a man was lying somewhat 
propped up against a tree. His eyes were closed, and 
there was a ghastly wound in his head. 

“Willy, it’s a Yankee, and he’s shot.” 

“Is he dead ?” asked the others, in awed voices. 

“No. Let’s ask him if he’s hurt much.” 

They all approached him. His eyes were shut and his 
face was ashy white. 

“Willy, it’s my Yankee!” exclaimed Frank. 

The wounded man moved his hand at the sound of 
the voices. 

“Water,” he murmured. “Bring me water,, for pity’s 
sake!” 

“I’ll get you some,—don’t you know me ? Let me have 
your canteen,” said Frank, stooping and taking hold of 
the canteen. It was held by its strap; but the boy whipped 
out a knife and cut it loose. 

The man tried to speak; but the boys could not un¬ 
derstand him. 

“Where are you goin’ get it, Frank?” asked the other 
boys. 


148 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

“At the branch down there that runs into the creek.” 

‘The Yankees ’ll shoot you down there,” objected 
Peter and Willy. 

“I ain’ gwine that way,” said Cole. 

The soldier groaned. 

“I’ll go with you, Frank,” said Willy, who could not 
stand the sight of the man’s suffering. 

“We’ll be back directly.” 

The two boys darted off,, the others following them at 
a little distance. They reached the open field. The shoot¬ 
ing was still going on in the woods on the other side, but 
they no longer thought of it. They ran down the hill 
and dashed across the little flat to the branch at the near¬ 
est point, washed the blood from the canteen, and filled 
it with the cool water. 

“I wish we had something to wash his face with,” 
sighed Willy, “but I haven’t got a handkerchief.” 

“Neither have I.” Willy looked thoughtful. A sec¬ 
ond more and he had stripped off his light sailor’s jacket 
and dipped it in the water. The next minute the two boys 
were running up the hill again. 

When they reached the spot where the wounded man 
lay, he had slipped down and was flat on the ground. His 
feeble voice still called for water, but was much weaker 
than before. Frank stooped and held the canteen to the 
man’s lips, and he drank. Then Willy and Frank, to- 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


149 

gether, bathed his face with the still dripping cotton jacket. 
This revived him somewhat; but he did not recognize 
them and talked incoherently. They propped up his head. 

'Trank, it's getting mighty late, and we’ve got to go 
home/’ said Willy. 

The boys’ voice or words reached the ears of the 
wounded man. 

"Take me home,” he murmured; "I want some water 
from the well by the dairy.” 

"Give him some more water.” 

Willy lifted the canteen. "Here it is.” 

The soldier swallowed with difficulty. 

He could not raise his hand now. There was a pause. 
The boys stood around, looking down on him. "I’ve come 
back home,” he said. His eyes were closed. 

"He’s dreaming,” whispered Willy. 

"Did you ever see anybody die?” asked Frank, in a 
low tone. 

Willy’s face paled. 

"No, Frank; let’s go home and tell somebody.” 

Frank stooped and touched the soldier’s face. He was 
talking all the time now, though they could not understand 
everything he said. The boy’s touch seemed to rouse him. 

"It’s bedtime,” he said, presently. "Kneel down and 
say your prayers for Father.” 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


150 

“Willy,, let’s say our prayers for him,” whispered 
Frank. 

“I can say, 'Now I lay me.’ ” But before he could 
begin, 

“ 'Now I lay me down to sleep/ ” said the soldier 
tenderly. The boys followed him, thinking he had heard 
them. They did not know that he was saying—for one 
whom but that morning he had called “his curly-head at 
home”—the prayer that is common to Virginia and to 
Delaware, to North and to South, and which no wars can 
silence and no victories cause to be forgotten. 

The soldier’s voice now was growing almost inaudible. 
He spoke between long-drawn breaths. 

" 'If I should die before I wake.’ ” 

“ 'If I should die before I wake/ ” they repeated, and 
continued the prayer. 

“ 'And this I ask for Jesus’ sake,’ ” said the boys, end¬ 
ing. There was a long pause. Frank stroked the pale 
face softly with his hands. 

“ 'And this I ask for Jesus’ sake/’ whispered the lips. 
Then, very softly, “Kiss me good-night.” 

“Kiss him, Frank.” 

The boy stooped over and kissed the lips that had kissed 
him in the morning. Willy kissed him, also. The lips 
moved in a faint smile. 


“God bless 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 151 

The boys waited,—but that was all. The dusk set¬ 
tled down in the woods. The prayer was ended. 

“He’s dead,” said Frank, in deep awe. 

“Frank, aren’t you mighty sorry?” asked Willy in a 
trembling voice. Then he suddenly broke out crying. 

“I don’t want him to die! I don’t want him to die!” 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


W HEN the boys reached home it was pitch-dark. 

They found their mother very anxious about 
them. They gave an account of the “battle,” 
as they called it, telling all about the charge,, in which, by 
their statement, the General and Hugh did wonderful 
deeds. Their mother and Cousin Belle sat and listened 
with tightly folded hands and blanched faces. 

Then they told how they found the wounded Yankee 
soldier on the bank, and about his death. They were 
startled by seeing their Cousin Belle suddenly fall on her 
knees and throw herself across their mother’s lap in a 
passion of tears. Their mother put her arms around the 
young girl, kissed and soothed her. 

Early the next morning their mother had an ox-cart 
(the only vehicle left on the place), sent down to the spot 
to bring the body of the soldier up to Oakland, so that it 
might be buried in the grave-yard there. Carpenter Wil¬ 
liam made the coffin, and several men were set to work 
to dig the grave in the garden. 

It was about the middle of the day when the cart came 

back. A sheet covered the body. The little cortege was 

152 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


153 


a very solemn one, the steers pulling slowly up the hill 
and a man walking on each side. Then the body was put 
into the coffin and reverently carried to the grave. The 
boys’ mother read the burial service out of the prayer- 
book, and afterward Uncle William Slow offered a prayer. 
Just as they were about to turn away, the boys’ mother 
began to sing, “Abide with me; fast falls the eventide.” 
She and Cousin Belle and the boys sang the hymn to¬ 
gether, and then all walked sadly away, leaving the fresh 
mound in the garden, where birds peeped curiously from 
the lilac-bushes at the soldier’s grave in the warm light of 
the afternoon sun. 

A small packet of letters and a gold watch and chain, 
found in the soldier’s pocket, were sealed up by the boys’ 
mother and put in her bureau drawer, for they could not 
then be sent through the lines. There was one letter, how¬ 
ever, which they buried with him. It contained two locks 
of hair, one gray, the other brown and curly. 

The next few months brought no new incidents,, but 
the following year deep gloom fell upon Oakland. It was 
not only that the times were harder than they had ever 
been—though the plantation was now utterly destitute; 
there were no provisions and no crops, for there were 
no teams. It was not merely that a shadow was settling 
down on all the land; for the boys did not trouble them- 


154 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


selves about these things, though such anxieties were 
bringing gray hairs to their mothers temples. 

The General had been wounded and captured during 
a cavalry fight. The boys somehow connected their 
Cousin Belle with the General’s capture, and looked on 
her with some disfavor. She and the General had quar¬ 
relled a short time before, and it was known that she had 
returned his ring. When, therefore, he was shot through 
the body and taken by the enemy, the boys could not admit 
that their cousin had any right to stay up-stairs in her 
own room weeping about it. They felt that it was all her 
own fault, and they told her so; whereupon she simply 
burst out crying and ran from the room. 

The hard times grew harder. The shadow deepened. 

Hugh was wounded and captured in a charge at Peters- 

• 

burg, and it was not known whether he was badly hurt or 
not. Then came the news that Richmond had been evac¬ 
uated. The boys knew that this was a defeat; but even 
then they did not believe that the Confederates were 
beaten. Their mother was deeply affected by the news. 

That night at least a dozen of the negroes disappeared. 
The other servants said the missing ones had gone to Rich¬ 
mond “to get their papers.” 

A week or so later the boys heard the rumor that 
General Lee had surrendered at a place called Appomat¬ 
tox. When they came home and told their mother what 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 155 

they had heard, she turned as pale as death, arose, and 
went into her chamber. The news was corroborated next 
day. During the following two days, every negro on the 
plantation left, excepting lame old Sukey Brown. Some 
of them came and said they had to go to Richmond, that 
“the word had come” for them. Others, including even 
Uncle Balia and Lucy Ann, slipped away by night. 

After that their mother had to cook, and the boys 
milked and did the heavier work. The cooking was not 
much trouble, however, for black-eyed pease were about 
all they had to eat. 

One afternoon, the second day after the news of Lee’s 
surrender, the boys, who had gone to drive up the cows 
to be milked, saw two horsemen, one behind the other, 
coming slowly down the road on the far hill. The front 
horse was white, and, as their father rode a white horse, 
they ran toward the house to carry the news. Their 
mother and Cousin Belle, however, having seen the horse¬ 
men, were waiting on the porch as the men came through 
the middle gate and rode across the field. 

It was their father and his body-servant, Ralph,, who 
had been with him all through the war. They came 
slowly up the hill; the horses limping and fagged, the rid¬ 
ers dusty and drooping. 

It seemed like a funeral. The boys were near the 
steps, and their mother stood on the portico with her fore- 


156 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

head resting against a pillar. No word was spoken. Into 
the yard they rode at a walk, and up to the porch. Then 
their father, who had not once looked up, put both hands 
to his face, slipped from his horse, and walked up the 
steps, tears running down his cheeks, and took their 
mother into his arms. It was a funeral—the Confederacy 
was dead. 

A little later,, their father, who had been in the house, 
came out on the porch near where Ralph still stood hold¬ 
ing the horses. 

“Take off the saddles, Ralph, and turn the horses out,” 
he said. 

Ralph did so. 

“Here,—here’s my last dollar. You have been a faith¬ 
ful servant to me. Put the saddles on the porch.” It 
was done. “You are free,” he said to the black, and then 
he walked back into the house. 

Ralph stood where he was for some minutes without 
moving a muscle. His eyes blinked mechanically. Then 
he looked at the door and at the windows above him. Sud¬ 
denly he seemed to come to himself. Turning slowly, he 
walked solemnly out of the yard. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


T HE boys’ Uncle William came the next day. The 
two weeks which followed were the hardest the 
boys had ever known. As yet nothing had been 
heard of Hugh or the General, though the boys’ father 
went to Richmond to see whether they had been released. 

The family lived on corn-bread and black-eyed pease. 
There was not a mouthful of meat on the plantation. A 
few aged animals were all that remained on the place. 

The boys’ mother bought a little sugar and made some 
cakes, and the boys, day after day, carried them over to 
the depot and left them with a man there to be sold. Such 
a thing had never been known before in the history of the 
family. 

A company of Yankees were camped very near, but 

they did not interfere with the boys. They bought the 

cakes and paid for them in greenbacks, which were the 

first new money they had at Oakland. One day the boys 

were walking along the road, coming back from the camp, 

when they met a little old one-horse wagon driven by a 

man who lived near the depot. In it were a boy about 

Willy’s size and an old lady with white hair, both in deep 

157 


158 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

mourning. The boy was better dressed than any boy 
they had ever seen. They were strangers. 

The boys touched their limp little hats to the lady, and 
felt somewhat ashamed of their own patched clothes in 
the presence of the well-dressed stranger. Frank and 
Willy passed on. They happened to look back. The 
wagon stopped just then, and the lady called them: 

“Little boys!” 

They halted and returned. 

“We are looking for my son; and this gentleman tells 
me that you live about here, and know more of the coun¬ 
try than any one else I may meet.” 

“Do you know where any graves is?—Yankee 
graves ?” asked the driver, cutting matters short. 

“Yes, there are several down on the road by Pigeon 
Hill, where the battle was, and two or three by the creek 
down yonder, and there’s one in our garden.” 

“Where was your son killed, ma’am? Do you know 
that he was killed?” asked the driver. 

“I do not know. We fear that he was; but, of course, 
we still hope there may have been some mistake. The 
last seen of him was when General Sheridan went through 
this country, last year. He was with his company in the 
rear-guard, and was wounded and left on the field. We 
hoped he might have been found in one of the prisons; 
but there is no trace of him, and we fear-” 




THE BOYS SELL THEIR CAKES TO THE YANKEES 




































TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 161 

She broke down and began to cry. “He was my only 
son,/’ she sobbed, “my only son—and I gave him, up for 

the Union, and-” She could say no more. 

K Her distress affected the boys deeply. 

“If I could but find his grave. Even that would be 
better than this agonizing suspense.” 

“What was your son’s name?” asked the boys, gently. 

She told them. 

“Why, that’s our soldier!” exclaimed both boys. 

“Do you know him?” she asked eagerly. “Is—? 
Is-?” Her voice refused to frame the fearful ques¬ 

tion. 

“Yes’m. In our garden,” said the boys, almost in- 
audibly. 

The mother bent her head over on her grandson’s 
shoulder and wept aloud. Awful as the suspense had 
been, now that the last hope was removed the shock was 
terrible. She gave a stifled cry, then wept with uncon¬ 
trollable grief. 

The boys, with pale faces and eyes moist with sympa¬ 
thy, turned away their heads and stood silent. At length 
she grew calmer. 

“Won’t you come home with us? Our father and 
mother will be so glad to have you,” they said hospitably. 

After questioning them a little further, she decided to 
go. The boys climbed into the back of the wagon. As 




162 TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 

they went along, the boys told her all about her son,— 
his carrying Frank, their finding him wounded near the 
road, and about his death and burial. 

“He was a real brave soldier,” they told her con¬ 
solingly. 

As they approached the house, she asked whether they 
could give her grandson something to eat. 

“Oh, yes, indeed. Certainly/’ they answered. Then, 
thinking perhaps they were raising her hopes too high, 
they exclaimed apologetically: 

“We haven’t got much. We didn’t kill any squirrels 
this morning. Both our guns are broken and don’t shoot 
very well, now.” 

She was much impressed by the appearance of the 
place, which looked very beautiful among the trees. 

“Oh, yes, they’re big folks,” said the driver. 

She would have waited at the gate when they reached 
the house, but the boys insisted that they all should come 
in at once. One of them ran forward and, meeting his 
mother just coming out to the porch, told who the visitor 
was. 

Their mother instantly came down the steps and walked 
toward the gate. The women met face to face. There 
was no introduction. None was needed. 

“My son-” faltered the elder lady, her strength 

giving out. 



TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 163 

The boys’ mother put her handkerchief to her eyes. 
“I have one, too;—God alone knows where he is,” 
she sobbed. 

Each knew how great was the other’s loss, and in sym¬ 
pathy with another’s grief found consolation for her own. 


CHAPTER XX. 



HE visitors remained at Oakland for several days, 


as the lady wished to have her son’s remains re¬ 
moved to the old homestead in Delaware. She 


was greatly distressed over the want which she saw at 
Oakland—for there was literally nothing to eat but black- 
eyed pease and the boys’ chickens. Every incident of the 
war interested her. She was delighted with their Cousin 
Belle, and took much interest in her story, which was told 
by the boys’ mother. 

Her grandson, Dupont, was a fine, brave,, and gener¬ 
ous young fellow. He had spent his boyhood near a town, 
and could neither ride, swim, nor shoot as the Oakland 
boys did; but he was never afraid to try anything, and 
the boys took a great liking to him, and he to them. 

When the young soldier’s body had been removed, the 
visitors left; not, however,, until the boys had made their 
companion promise to pay them a visit. After the de¬ 
parture of these friends they were much missed. 

But the next day there was a great rejoicing at Oak¬ 
land. Every one was in the dining-room at dinner, and 
the boys’ father had just risen from the table and walked 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


165 

out of the room. A second later they heard an exclama¬ 
tion of astonishment from him, and he called eagerly to 
his wife, “Come here, quickly!” and ran down the steps. 
Every one rose and ran out. Hugh and the General were 
just entering the yard. 

They were pale and thin and looked ill; but all the 
past was forgotten in the greeting. 

The boys soon knew that the General was making his 
peace with their Cousin Belle, who looked prettier than 
ever. It required several long walks before all was made 
right; but there was no disposition toward severity on 
either side. It was determined that the wedding was to 
take place very soon. The boys’ father suggested, as an 
objection to an immediate wedding, that since the General 
was just half his usual size, it would be better to wait until 
he should regain his former proportions, so that all of 
him might be married; but the General would not accept 
the proposition for delay, and Cousin Belle finally con¬ 
sented to be married at once. 

The old place was in a great stir over the preparations. 
A number of the old servants, including Uncle Balia and 
Lucy Ann, had one by one come back to their old home. 
The trunks in the garret were ransacked once more, and 
enough was found to make up a wedding trousseau of two 
dresses. 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 


166 

Hugh was to be the General's best man, and the boys 
were to be the ushers. The only difficulty was that their 
patched clothes made them feel a little abashed at the 
prominent roles they were to assume. However, their 
mother made them each a nice jacket from a striped 
dress, one of her only two dresses, and she adorned them 
with the military brass buttons their father had had taken 
from his coat; so they felt very proud. Their father, of 
course, was to give the bride away,—an office he accepted 
with pleasure, he said, provided he did not have to move 
too far, which might be hazardous so long as he had to 
wear his spurs to keep the soles on his boots. 

Thus, even amid the ruins, the boys found life joyous, 
and if they were without everything else, they had life, 
health, and hope. The old guns were broken, and they 
had to ride in the ox-cart; but they hoped to have others 
and to do better, some day. 

The “some day" came sooner than they expected. 

The morning before the wedding, word came that there 
were at the railroad station several boxes for their mother. 
The ox-cart was sent for them. When the boxes arrived,, 
that evening, there was a letter from their friend in Dela¬ 
ware, congratulating Cousin Belle and apologizing for 
having sent “a few things" to her Southern friends. 

The “few things" consistecbnot only of necessaries, but 



SOME OF THE SERVANTS CAME BACK TO THEIR OLD HOME. 










































































































RB 7. 4 if 


TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES 169 

of everything which good taste could suggest. There was 
a complete trousseau for Cousin Belle, and clothes for 
each member of the family. The boys had new suits of 
fine cloth with shirts and underclothes in plenty. 

But the best surprise of all was found when they came 
to the bottom of the biggest box, and found two long, 
narrow cases, marked, “For the Oakland boys.” These 
cases held beautiful, new double-barrelled guns of the fin¬ 
est make. There was a large supply of ammunition, and 
in each case there was a letter from Dupont promising 
to come and spend his vacation with them,, and sending his 
love and good wishes and thanks to his friends—the “Two 
Little Confederates.” 


THE END. 























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